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By Omodele Adigun
As many Russian companies expressed desire to invest in Nigeria, the Federal Government has been urged to leverage the ongoing conflict to fast track the process.
According to Professor Keneth Ife, faculty member at NDA and CBN Programmes facilitator, now that their country is under heavy sanctions from the west and US, “if there is a way, the (Russian) business people would use Nigeria as springboard to push out some of their investments. They would be coming here.”
Last September, the President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, Mr Sergey Katyrin, said Russian companies and businesses were ready to partner and invest in Nigetia.I n the same vein, the Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), Mr Sampson Uwem-Edimo, also said that nine Russian companies had declared interest to invest the sum of $500 million into Nigeria’s manufacturing sector.
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Announcing that the Russian investors had indicated interest to invest in critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, the President of Nigeria-Russia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NRCCI), Obiora Okonkwo, said: “Our aim is to study, promote, protect and extend industrial and commercial relations between individuals, firms, companies, corporations, institutions and associations of Nigeria and Russia, as well as provide Nigerian and Russian businesses with a forum for contacts, discussion of common interest, information, advice and collation of ideas for the improvement of economic and business interests.”
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO member Germany said it would halt a pipeline project that would have let Russia earn millions of dollars by pumping gas across Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he aimed to cut off Russia from the U.K.’s financial markets as he announced sanctions, freezing the assets of all large Russian banks and planning to bar Russian companies and the Kremlin from raising money on British markets.“We are even, with our American friends, going to stop them trading in pounds and dollars,” Johnson told the BBC. “That will hit very, very hard”.
Weighing in on these, Ife said: “NATO countries are blocking their investments now because of the war.But if they have avenue to come to Nigeria to invest, you will be surprised that a lot of money would come here. This is because they know that we are non-aligned nation.
“We have huge a monumental opportunities; we have that natural resources; we have what they have; we have gas, they have gas; we have oil, they have oil. So many of their cash, refinance and investors, who have been dealing with Siberian Gas, those are the people that would come out. They have been supplying 40 per cent of European gas, through the Siberia Gas pipelines that are being blocked now. Now that they are about to witness a slump in the supply of their gas, those factories and those people working there would want to come abroad with their expertise and investments to come and work in our gas industry here, especially our marginal gas fields. These are the people that would come out, bring their investments; bring their equipment and come and do some worthwhile jobs here. They would come to a place where there are resources and a dynamic big economy. That is Nigeria, which can foot the bill. So it will have a positive impact for Nigeria if we know what to do. If we instruct our ambassador in Russia to woo them and do the groundwork.”
