Govt plans to drive investments on infrastructure

Brazilian firm opens office in Nigeria

IN a bid to revive the moribund infrastructure across the country, the Federal Government will soon come up with a master-plan to aid new investments in projects across all sectors of the economy.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, disclosed this during a meeting with the Andrade Gutierrez (AG Group) in Abuja on Monday. The group was led by Nigeria’s Ambassador to Brazil, Vincent Okoedion, AG’s President for Africa, Rodrigo da Costa Fonseca and its new Managing Director for Nigeria, Mr. Amauri Pinha.

The AG Group is one of the largest infrastructure investment companies in Brazil.

Aganga noted that Nigeria’s Integrated Infrastructure Master-Plan, which is currently being worked upon by the Ministries of National Planning, Trade and Investment, and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, would be completed before the end of this year. It would help the country focus on attracting investors for key infrastructural projects.

He said: “During the honorary international investment council meeting, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan recently, he commended each of the ministers for having very strong and robust master-plan for each of the sectors. However, one of the decisions taken at the meeting was that it was time we put together an integrated infrastructure master-plan that will bring everything together. The idea is that once we have that master-plan (which we already have, but it is just to put it together), then we will have a list of priority projects that are available for investors to come and invest in. This will make it easier for all investors that are interested in infrastructure projects to look at one master-plan and work from there”.

According to Aganga, “the integrated infrastructure master-plan would be worked on between the Ministry of National Planning ICRC (which will lead the effort), and the Ministry of Trade and Investment. Hopefully, we expect to have it before the end of this year, but that doesn’t stop us from marketing other investment opportunities across Nigeria to genuine investors.”

The minister noted that the growing interest in the Nigerian economy by foreign investors was a testimony that current efforts by his ministry to market the investment opportunities across the world were yielding positive results.

“This visit by Brazilian investors clearly demonstrates that our efforts at marketing Nigeria’s investment opportunities to the world are yielding results. The AG Group is one of the biggest infrastructure companies in Brazil. The fact that they have come to set up their office in Nigeria with a new managing director after our meeting in Brazil recently shows that our efforts are working and people actually believe in the investment opportunities in Nigeria,” the minister said.

Okoedion said, “since the early 1990s when Petrobras came to Nigeria, this is the most significant Brazilian company to come to this country. It shows that the Ministry of Trade and Investments is succeeding in selling Nigeria. This company was in Angola but they want to move over to Nigeria and make Nigeria the hub of their operations in Africa.”

Fonseca said the Group had already concluded plans to set up office in Nigeria because of the country’s strategic position to the company’s future investment plans.

He added that, “the AG Group is a leading Brazilian infrastructure company that has been in Africa for more than 30 years. Right now, we are poised to open an office in Nigeria because Nigeria is the most important country on the African continent and we cannot afford to be left out. We are looking at key infrastructure projects in which we can invest in Nigeria.”