Italians are the Europeans most similar to Nigerians. It is time we leveraged on this, making Italy a source of about $30bn in FDI annually

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nigerians and Italians have an identical fashion sense. This should be the foundation of a bilateral trade agreement, starting with shoes. We need to get the likes of Santoni, Gucci, Salvatore, Prada, Ferragamo and Tod's to open joint ventures with local counterparts in Aba

[2] Our trade minister should then initiate talks with all the major Italian fashion designers like Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Missoni, Dolce & Gabbana, and Ferragamo about them opening factories across Nigeria

[3] Italian airline Alitalia should take out a minority stake in Air Peace and between the two of them they should convert it into a major international carrier

[4] We should merge the Ajaokuta, Aladja and Oshogbo steel plants into the Nigerian Steel Corporation and then get the Riva Group, Italy's largest steel producer to take over this company

[5] We should invite Italian manufacturing and automobile giant Fiat to take out a 20% stake in Innoson Motors. Their emphasis should be on manufacturing electric cars

[6] Italian oil giant Eni will be invited to open a mega power plant in Nigeria. A vertically integrated gas-fired facility with distribution and transmission subsidiaries

[7] Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri should be invited to open a shipyard in the Niger Delta. Why can’t we make Nigeria the world’s largest shipbuilder

[8] CNH Industrial, the Italian manufacturing conglomerate should be invited to come and open a plant that manufactures agricultural equipment and construction equipment in Nigeria

[9] Gruppo Campari, the Italian beverage company should be invited to open a drinks company that bottles labelled and branded palm wine and ogogoro

[10] Trenitalia, the largest subsidiary of the Italian state railway corporation Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, manages most passenger trains in Italy, including high-speed Frecciarossa trains with up to 11 carriages. They should be invited to run a railway franchise in Nigeria under a 50-year lease

ayoakinfe@gmail.com

www.ayoakinfe.com