From Uche Usim and Nsisong Morgan, Abuja
The Managing Director, Footprint to Africa, Osita Oparauyo, yesterday, said that the company was committed to deepening intra-African businesses. He said he would do this by connecting players on the continent with the right foreign investors, partners and opportunities through Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) and joint venture deals.
According to him, the company hosts events in various African countries and across various sectors with the sole aim of building bridges across various sectors.
“Focused and high-level, our events provide the perfect environment to initiate new business relationships, identify opportunities and achieve face to face contact that overcrowded trade shows cannot deliver,” he noted.
The Footprint to Africa boss also maintained that the organisation was currently partnering five African countries, including Nigeria, adding: “We also have a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). We want to link Nigerian SME business owners and their counterparts overseas.”
He also disclosed that the company has created an online platform where it educates foreign investors about investment opportunities in Africa. “At Footprint to Africa, we are promoting investment opportunities in Africa; we are also creating a platform for synergy. After two years of operation, we realised that about 73 per cent of our traffic comes from mobile devices,” he revealed.
He said, “During the outbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone, which was a fast growing economy in Africa, we met with the government there and did a documentary to see how business opportunities can reshape their economy, so that the world would see that they are well to do. So, genuine investors who want to rebuild the country’s economy could come in.”