By Merit Ibe [email protected]
The Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), is optimistic that there are great investment opportunities in Nigeria.
Its Chief Executive, Mrs. Rosie Glazebrook, who is in Nigeria to mobilise the Nigerian business community to attend the forthcoming Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF 2022) talked about energy transition, which is a key area of opportunity for the council to do more work with Nigeria.
Glazebrook, who met with some partners of the council in Nigeria, disclosed that there is a desire to expand their connections in an international context with the help of the council.
Background
We are an industry body that exists to connect businesses and governments across the 54 Commonwealth countries. We reach out to a huge population across the world. We see a great advantage, we call the Commonwealth advantage through our shared language ,legal system, history and longstanding links together. In total, we have about 100 strategic partners of which we have many of them in Nigeria, which is one of the purposes of my visit here. This time we have 15 in Nigeria. Also, we have 10 hubs around the world, including here in Nigeria where we have representatives and across the world from United Kingdom, Australia, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Malta, Gibraltar, Ghana, etc. So, we have a wide network of hubs that is available for our partners to work with.
Expectations
The purpose of my visit this time is to meet the strategic partners we have in Nigeria. They include Zenith Bank, Dangote Group, African Law Practice NG & Company and the Custodian Investment Plc. Others are Afreximbank, Cititrust Holdings, Lagos Free Zone, LandAfrique Nigeria Limited, Next International Limited, Prime Atlantic, L.A.T Clevenson Group, YOA Insurance Brokers, Leadway Assurance and Novare Equity Partners. I am pleased to be meeting many of our partners and potential partners. There are a number of businesses being invited to join our network in the meetings I have had since arriving Nigeria to understand our priorities. The other activities that are helping to achieve these are to raise awareness of CBF 2022 and also to bring some of my understanding to the Nigerian market by listening to some of the needs of our partners who are here. We also have a Nigerian International Advisory Council which constitutes all our partners in Nigeria and I will also be co-chairing the council meeting with our Nigerian Chair, Mr. Olasupo Shasore SAN, Partner, African Law Practice NG & Company.
Nigerian businesses
What CWEIC offers is a number of key things. The first is facilitating access to the top level of government. Recently we had a roundtable at 10 Downing Street in London, with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom attending. And some of our strategic partners from Nigeria were at that event. We were able to connect businesses at the top level of government. That gives you a flavour of how we support our strategic partners.
Rwanda forum
The CBF 2022 is organized by CWEIC in partnership with the Government of Rwanda. The CBF 2022 in June, will address the Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) with the Theme; Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming, with a focus on rebuilding and reinvigorating the global economy post COVID and the leadership role the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth private sector can play in accomplishing this. This is the first time CHOGM will be returning to Africa after a long time and the business forum is for three days before the CHOGM meeting. We are delighted that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda will be opening the business forum while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr. Boris Johnson, will be attending the CBF 2022 as well as the Prince of Wales. One of the key themes at the CBF is energy and energy security. It is a big program of different events involving speakers and our Nigerian strategic partners will be sitting on panels and contributing at this event to a global audience of key leaders across the Commonwealth’s biggest businesses. President Muhammadu Buhari, will also be attending the CHOGM. From the perspective of the CWEIC, we want to encourage as many businesses from Nigeria to bring delegations and to have their voices heard. I am delighted that so many of them are planning to attend.
Ease of doing business
The CWEIC is an enabler and makes introductions where there are obstacles that might do with policy issues or challenges of having visibility at the right place. We are able to use our hub network and access to different organisations at very senior levels, like the CBF, to facilitate that. This will help Nigerian companies have their voices heard in an international context. We have the Commonwealth Law Network (CLN), which has multiple members of law professional firms in the CWEIC strategic partnership that have Nigerian representatives on it. So, we bring together people with common aims and also provide visibility and access to key decision-makers in government and other businesses.
Clean energy
During COVID-19 pandemic, we put together a series of webinars and in particular those around energy security and other aspects with our strategic partners and now we are able to work in person it will be something we will be discussing in the next few months. And looking forward is how we can make sure the voices of our Nigerian partners and businesses are part of that conversation. And certainly in my meetings last Monday this issue of sustainability was a common theme across many of our partners who are working in the energy sector. So, we will be looking to bring together different views and working with experts in the field to encourage sharing of information, best practice and knowledge. That is one of the key themes we will be looking at.
Investment
There are great investment opportunities in Nigeria from a CWEIC perspective. We see huge opportunities here. We have talked about energy transition and that is certainly a key area for opportunities for us to do more work with Nigeria. And having meetings with some of our partners, there is the desire to expand their connections in an international context that we can help.
That is bringing opportunities back into Nigeria. I met with some leaders in the chambers of commerce and we have discussed how we can work together to bring knowledge to Nigeria. In answer to your question, yes we see opportunities here. But from the CWEIC perspective, we will prioritise our relationship with Nigeria. This is my first overseas visit and we see fantastic opportunities to build our relationship together. The first thing I did when I joined CWEIC is to look at where we have great opportunities and that is why I have come here.
1st port of call
We have very strong relationships with our strategic partners here. We have the potential to grow our relationship with future partners and that is why we have had the whole series of meetings over my short time here. We really want to encourage trade and investment opportunities between different Commonwealth countries. And Nigeria is well placed in Africa for me to see how we can do that. My background is in interfacing businesses and governments. But, I am also interested in my meetings in Nigeria around professional services and standards. That is something that I will like to understand more about how we can work together across the Commonwealth to build some further links. There is also the Commonwealth Standard Network and I am also involved in the British Standards Institutions. So, that seems to be an area that I am interested in Nigeria.
Targeted sectors
We talked a bit about energy security and I am sure that will certainly be one of them. Another area that we are looking at in our program is professional services. The other area is food security and how that will be impacted by the events in the world today. I think the other area for some of our members is tourism, particularly in the 32 smaller Commonwealth countries. The other key theme is around sustainability and climate change making sure that it is kept at the forefront. We are also looking at financial services, fintech, picking areas that are particularly of interest to our partners and where we think we can add the most value. We are really going to prioritise some of these.
Visibility
My message of hope to the Nigerian business community is that there are such opportunities coming out of the pandemic and being able to make these connections really work for businesses. My message of hope for Nigerian businesses is “please come to the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF 2022) to have the maximum visibility and connections that we think that we can really help businesses here to have. We hope that we are doing really valuable work for the Nigerian business community and the list of our strategic partners is evidence of the importance they put on the success of our network.
Youth empowerment
One area where we are very interested also in prioritising is skills in young people and we collaborate closely with the Association of Commonwealth Universities. One of the areas we will be looking into to do more on is forming partnerships between academic partners, the universities and the business sector. And that may take the form of internships and upscaling stuff within some of the industries here and elsewhere and that is another area that I am particularly interested in going. Nigeria has a very young workforce and education is very much prioritised here. So, I am hopeful that that might be an area that we look to do more on.