SA, Nigeria to push trade, investment
17 November 2009
South Africa is looking forward to working with Nigerian businesses to further open up trade and investment opportunities between the two countries, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said during the South Africa-Nigeria Bi-National Commission in Pretoria over the weekend.
"We are seeing entry of Nigerian-based companies into South Africa, the highlight, of course, being the listing of Oando Nigeria on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the investment by Dangote Group in our cement industry for a record US$378-million," Motlanthe said.
"At a private business level, we are seeing some of Nigeria's successful business people partnering with their South African counterparts. We would like to see more such partnerships and more Nigerian businesses coming into South Africa."
Motlanthe said business enterprises had a critical role to play in the pursuit of socio-economic goals, with the scope of engagement between the countries' private sectors spanning such crucial areas as energy, telecommunications, banking, construction, hospitality and retail.
Opportunities remain untapped
Since the launch of the SA-Nigeria Bi-National Commission 10 years ago, trade between the two countries had leapt from $16.5-million in 1999 to $2.1-billion in 2008. However, this was scratching the surface of what it could be, Motlanthe said.
He noted that the Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economic Study that had just been released reported that construction growth in Nigeria would be the fastest of all markets in the next 10 years.
The study says infrastructure construction in emerging markets is set to grow by 128% between now and 2020, compared with 18% over the same period in developed countries.
"For us as a developing nation that has embarked on massive infrastructure development occasioned by, among others, South Africa hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup, these forecasts are already coming true, " Motlanthe said.
"The forecasts about construction growth in Nigeria and what we are currently witnessing in South Africa in this area of activity demonstrate the existence of permanent and strategic business and government-to-government interests between our two countries."
He added that South Africa wanted to bring parity to the skewed trade balance in favour of Nigeria, created as a result of the amount of oil South Africa imported from Nigeria.
Bilateral achievements
Listing some of the achievements of the bi-national commission since its establishment, Motlanthe said Nigerian lawyers could now practise in South Africa, while Nigerian travel operators had signed an agreement to jointly promote South Africa and Nigeria.
In relation to education, there was ongoing collaboration between the University of South Africa and the National Open University of Nigeria. "Our Department of Education has facilitated the acquisition of work permits for Nigerian academics to lecture in our tertiary institutions."
On health matters, there had been exchanges of policy documents and legislation in the area of traditional medicine. In 2007, there were exchanges of missions, especially in the area of local production of herbal medicines and the transfer of medical technology. In the same year, South Africa donated 1.7-million polio vaccines to Nigeria.
Motlanthe added that since the establishment of the bi-national commission, South Africa had provided training on drug information for Nigerian health practitioners.
Regarding the oil, energy and gas sector, South African state oil and gas company PetroSA has formed an operating partnership with Nigerian firm MONI PULO, and also won a contract from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to drill for crude oil.
Eskom has also helped the former National Electric Power Authority of Nigeria with the rehabilitation and repair of transmission transformers.
Source: BuaNews
