President Tinubu recently visited Japan and Brazil in search of foreign direct investment. I hope he reached an agreement on the following with both countries

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Our insecurity crisis has spiralled out of control and as such, we need a whole mechanised division of the Nigerian Army trained into a commando unit of special forces up to the standards of say the US Navy Seals or the British SAS. Both Brazil and Japan must agree to train and equip such units

[2] We need at least $10bn invested in cattle ranches, dairy plants, animal feed compounders and leather factories to address our chronic Fulani herdsman crisis

[3] Nigeria currently only generates 7,000MW of power compared with say Egypt’s 24,700MW and South Africa’s 58,000MW. We desperately need investment in this sector. We need Brazil and Japan to pledge an annual investment sum of at least $5bn in the sector

[4] Any supplier of finished goods who recieves a contract to supply any Nigerian government with finished goods in excess of $1m must commit to opening a manufacturing facility in the country. Failure to do so should be classified as money laundering

[5] Any Brazilian and Japanese pharmaceutical giants that has developed a Covid-19 vaccine must commit to opening a manufacturing plant in Nigeria to supply the African continent

[6] The governments of Japan and Brazil must offer automobile manufacturers generous tax rebates to encourage them to site their new generation of electric car factories in Nigeria

[7] Nigeria is the world’s major producer of at least 10 agricultural crops and is among the top 10 producers of about 50 other tropical products. Brazil and Japan must offer their food processors export credits to come and open processing plants in Nigeria

[8] To industrialise, a nation needs power, crude oil, steel and manpower. Of all these areas, the one place where Nigeria is totally lacking is steel as we do not produce one tonne. As a matter of utter urgency, Brazilian and Japanese steel manufacturers must be offered tax rebates of up to 80% to locate to Nigeria as without it, we will remain perpetually under-developed

[9] All Nigeria’s foreign debts to Japan and Brazil must be converted into investment grants. We have an annual infrastructural deficit of $100bn and a paltry budget of $33bn, so cannot afford to be servicing loans. Basic arithmetic shows that our economy cannot accommodate paying all these foreign loans

[10] Brazil and Japan must pledge to ensure that 10% of all investment by their industrialists comes to Africa as from 2026. To facilitate this, they must offer them a combination of tax rebates, export credits, green credits, relocation allowances, etc

ayoakinfe@gmail.com