By Merit Ibe
Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) and the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) have opened talks with the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkiye (DEIK) towards attracting Turkish investments in Energy, Food processing, Fintech, Project Financing, Health and PPPs. This was consummated during the recent D-8 Summit held in Istanbul, Turkey.
Consisting of 149 Business Councils, 141 Bilateral Business Councils, 6 Sector-specific Business Councils and 2 Special Purpose Business Councils, DEIK is the Turkish Board assigned to organise and manage the foreign economic relations of the Turkish private sector, in particular, with respect to foreign trade, international investments, services, contracting and logistics amongst others.
During the talks, the three parties agreed to partner in staging quarterly Business Investment Forums across Turkiye to further acquaint the Turkish business community with Nigeria’s investment opportunities. NIPC is to further facilitate the smooth entry of the Turkish investors into the Nigerian economic space, provide aftercare services to Turkish businesses already operating in the country as well as formulate a roadmap for 2022 and 2023 to ensure robust engagement and sensitization of the Turkish business community on the country’s investment prospects. The Commission will also initiate the MOU that will kickstart the process.
The D-8 Summit attracted participation from 7 Economic Ministers, all investment promotion agencies of the member nations, and NACCIMA, representing Nigeria’s private sector, amongst other top government officials.