Dogara woo Swedish investors to invest in power, ICT, agriculture

Date:

Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives on Wednesday beckoned on Swedish investors to take advantage of abounding opportunities in the country by investing in automobile, ICT, agriculture, power generation and other critical infrastructure.

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Dogara gave the charge in Abuja, during an interactive session with the Swedish ambassador to Nigeria, Inger Ulvedt and some Swedish investors who were on working visit to Nigeria.

The Speaker observed that Nigeria is the second largest trade partner with Sweden in Sub-Sahara Africa and has an existing cordial relationship that should be deepened for the overall citizens of both countries.

“Swedish companies or corporate citizens are not strangers to business in Nigeria; whether it is in the area of telecommunications, we remember Ericson handsets. I commend the ingenuity and creativity of the Swedish people in the area of automobile, in the area of power generation, they are doing wonderful work.

“So we cannot help but call for more engagement in this direction and more flow of foreign direct investment in Nigeria in the area of agriculture to provide employment for our people, in the area of infrastructure, power, renewable energy, ICT, industries, especially the automobiles we talked about, will increase opportunities in this part of the world if we continue to help.

“We look forward to continuous engagement and whatever it is, in terms of agreement, that we have to domicile in Nigeria, we pledge our total support and the legislature will give the power of law to treaties and agreements between the two countries,” Dogara assured.

The Speaker who applauded the intervention of government and people of Sweden during the fight against insurgency, solicited for further support.

He said: “I want to also thank you for the initiative you spoke about on the convening of a donor conference for the North East and the Lake Chad region in Nigeria which was done in Oslo, Norway, in February last year. It is something that I have constantly called for, using the platform of the Speaker.

“I happen to come from the North East region that is devastated on account of the insurgency and I did say that there was an international donor conference that was organised for Kosovo, Iit has been done for Iraq as well, and so many other nations and there was no way our own crisis here in Nigeria could actually be ignored.

“My contention then was that terrorism is a global phenomenon, it may be home grown in a particular country but its devastating consequences will be felt in another country. So my take on this has always been that a global problem requires a global response and that there was a need for the international community to organise a donor conference for the north east just as it was done for the rest of the countries I referred to.

“Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened but we want to thank the Nordic countries through the ambassador for the effort that was made and for the Oslo donor conference which yielded a lot of resources that have been channeled to our people. As a parliament that is a true representative of the people, we are thankful for that effort and we call for more of such efforts.”

Speaking earlier, Inger Ulvedt, Swedish ambassador told the Speaker that Sweden is interested in collaborating with the Nigerian government in various sectors, and would like to broaden the existing bilateral agreements between them.

She also added that apart from supporting Nigerian students in areas of innovation at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State and Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto State, her country has been the biggest donor to the Nigerian humanitarian trust fund for the victims of violence in the North East where they have built small houses, schools, hospitals, among others.

KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja

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