With this new trend of organising international Africa investment summits President Buhari needs to appoint a minister of state for foreign direct investment

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Over the last 12 months, China, Russia, Japan and the UK have all hosted Africa investment summits during which they invite presidents from across our continent to brainstorm about how they can tap into our growing markets. Africa is basically the last frontier of global economic expansion

(2) Southeast Asia went through this phase in the 1980s and 1990s when economies like Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, etc all suddenly began attracting largescale foreign direct investment because they had huge markets and because production costs were lower than what prevailed in Europe and North America

(3) Today, it is the turn of Africa, which is why everyone is trying to get on the bandwagon. This summer, France and India will both be hosting Africa investment summits, to which Nigeria will be invited along with most if not all of the other 54 nations on our continent

(4) To me, it appears that Nigeria is slow to appreciate what is going on because at all these summits, we are simply not attracting the kind of investment we should. Given that we are Africa’s largest economy and have the continent’s biggest market, we should be clearing out such summits. It should be game, set and match to Nigeria at any African investment summit

(5) Take the recent UK-Africa summit for instance. Nigeria only attracted $430m worth of investment compared with Kenya’s $1.7bn. Ghana, Rwanda, Egypt and South Africa all did better than us because they went to London fully prepared. We did not have a roadmap or a clear strategy about what we wanted in London

(6) Nigeria currently has an annual infrastructural deficit of $100bn and these summits should be where we find this funding. For instance, while in London, just imagine the way we would have shaken up the global economy if President Buhari had arranged a meeting with Richard Branson to apologise to him over how he was treated when he launched Virgin Nigeria. Can you imagine the boost Nigeria would have gotten if at the London summit President Buhari and Mr Branson signed a bilateral deal to float a new Nigerian national carrier and got Heathrow and Gatwick airports to grant it landing rights

(7) These are the kind of deals a minister for foreign direct investment would sort out in the run-up to the summit, so we just have the grand signing at the event itself. Making such statements is key when you are trying to sell your economy as one that is open for business

(8) Anyway, we cannot turn back the hand of the clock, so cannot claw back the losses we suffered for attending the China, Japan, Russia and UK summits unprepared. However, we can make sure we take maximum advantage of the forthcoming France and India summits by having a minister of foreign direct investment in place now. This person should set investment goals for each summit and work tirelessly to meet these targets

(9) Personally, the one I am really waiting for is the German-African Summit as their attention to technical detail, impeccable engineering and record of lasting edifices is what we need. Do you know that the Germans built a cattle ranch for Nigeria in the 1950s in Mokwa? They were also the first to open a car assembly plant in Nigeria when Volkswagen opened its Lagos facility

(10) Nigeria has to start setting herself tough targets. Any summit where we cannot attract at least $5bn worth of investment is simply not worth attending. If President Buhari actually makes that clear, it will force these investors to take us a little more seriously. Before inviting Nigeria, these host countries will actually have some projects lined up knowing that if they do not, we will not attend. This may be our last chance to join the industrial race this century!