‘Nigeria attractive for investment despite challenges’

Nigeria remains an attractive destination for investors despite infrastructure and security challenges, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) has said.

The Trade Commissioner/Managing Director of JETRO Lagos, Taninami Takuma, who disclosed this at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair, said the Japanese government was willing to boost business relationship with Nigeria.

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He said the lack of infrastructure and insecurity in the country made the cost of doing business to be high. Takuma, therefore, urged the federal government to address the nation’s infrastructure deficit, security challenges, as well as make foreign exchange accessible for the business community.

While noting that the amount of export from Nigeria to Japan in 2021 was about $760 million, the import from Japan to Nigeria was $287m, he said the major commodities of export from Nigeria to Japan is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which represents about 70 per cent.

“As I mentioned earlier, one of our missions is to promote trade and investment. This is the reason why we have been exhibiting at the Lagos International Trade Fair from 2015 to 2019. And after the COVID19 crisis, we are now finally back to TBS,” he said, noting that 19 Japanese companies were at the fair.