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‘Safe City Solutions’ll Attract Foreign Investment’ First published by James Emejo of This Day Newspapers, 12.23.2009 Principal Consultant, Infoplus/IBG Nigeria, Mr. Ndudi Osakwe, has identified the concept of Safe City as one of the critical indices for attracting foreign investment and tourism into the country. The concept of  Safe City portrays an environment that is void of street urchins, violence, sale of alcoholic products in motor parks and hawking of pornographic materials on highways and street corners among others. Osakwe, who just returned from the Safe City Solutions conference held in Tel Aviv, Israel said safe city provides the prerequisite for city growth and success, increasing business opportunities and a basis for a high standard of living for residents and visitors. The conference, which was declared open by former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Tzipi Livni, with the Nigerian Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Olisa Dada, in attendance showcased technological solut

Do you do business in Nigeria? Do you have agents and distributors? Is your product doing well in the Nigerian market? We can help you with market appraisal. Email inquiry@ibgnigeria.com for an affordable rapid market appraisal . Reason: The Nigerian market has become very competitive and there is a need to position your business. More retail franchise especially in the food and beverages sub-sector and brands, for instance, in beauty care products are entering the market due to its enlarged middle class occasioned by the engagement of more women in workplaces, more expatriates and more repatriates taking advantage of the emerging economy with GDP growth rate of over 7%. Focus: Food and Beverages and Beauty Care Products Challenges: a.     Looking to locate agents and distributors b.     Having clogged channels c.     Finding ways to open up the channels Solutions: a.     Locate pre qualified agents and distributors b.     Identify the

Africa Investor, a leading investment magazine with focus on the African continent reported that even though South Africa is recognized as Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria far outweighed it in foreign direct investment, receiving about 16 billion US dollars in FDI between June 2009 and June 2010 to lead the pack on investment index in the entire continent. However, while most of the investment was in the oil and gas sector, other sectors have received more of lip service than real investment. It is not yet Uhuru! Agriculture has been the greatest culprit because more than 70% of Nigerian population is engaged in agriculture-subsistence agriculture-leading to huge supply gap in the food sub-sector. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that out of about 71.2 million hectares of available cultivatable agricultural land in the country, less than half is currently being utilized. This is the sector to put your funds right now. You may invest in green houses, improved seedlings for

CLOSING REMARKS ON THE OCCASION OF THE SEMINAR ON DOING BUSINESS IN ISRAEL, HELD IN LAGOS, NIGERIA ON JULY 18, 2013 Greetings! I feel humbled to be called upon to give the closing remarks on this August occasion on “Doing Business in Israel” put together by the Nigeria Israel Chamber of Commerce and Infoplus Business Information Services. Israel has been described by one of the speakers as a mission, practical and focused with know-how, new concepts and set of skills that have transformed its economy, whereby once desert areas have been transformed into agricultural fields; and the country able to feed itself and to export! As a matter of fact, Israel’s capacity for innovation has been identified as its main strength such that insecurity and other significant adverse conditions have not fazed the citizens of this great country from digging deep into research and development. The World Economic Forum recently issued its Global Competitiveness Report for 2012-13 which indica

VENTURES AFRICA – Egi MJG Float Glass, a joint venture between the Egi Community, Mara Group, JS Group and Ghani Group in River State today announced the groundbreaking for their first float glass manufacturing plant in Nigeria, which is valued at $210 million. The production facility in Rivers State which aims to produce 500 tonnes of float glass per day will cost $110 million during the first phase, and an additional $100 million during the second expansion phase. During the ceremony, Prashant Manek, Director at Mara Group, declared: “Today’s groundbreaking is a first step in making Nigeria self sufficient in terms of glass manufacturing. As a result of the strategic location and the locally available raw materials, we are highly confident that we will be able to build a world-class, cost-competitive facility.” According to Ali Siddiqui, CEO of JS Group, “since the year 2000, the global float glass industry has experienced strong growth. In particular, the industry ha

We are business facilitators, market researchers and consultants. We are Nigerians as well as Israelis. We have lived and worked in Israel and now do the same in Nigeria therefore we understand the cultural nuances in both countries. 'We speak their languages'. Coming back to Nigeria was to represent the US federal states of Missouri and California Offices of International Marketing, East Mediterranean Regional Office in Nigeria. We have since moved on to doing business in other parts of the world, leading business delegations to Singapore, China and Israel. Amongst other things, we have also contributed to doing ‘business beyond borders’ by holding a seminar on cross border trade between Nigeria and Benin Republic in collaboration with the Consulate of Benin Republic, Lagos. Recently we collaborated with the Nigeria-Israeli Chamber of Commerce to host a seminar on Doing Business in Israel. We provide market intelligence, conduct market research, do business matching, as

By Sherwin Pomerantz The basic economic statistics for 2012 are now beginning to surface and it is clear that economically, in spite of the world’s financial doldrums, Israel did pretty well. From 2009-2012 Israel experienced economic growth of 14.7%, well ahead of most OECD countries (e.g. US – 3.2%, Germany – 2.7%, Australia – 10.7%, Canada – 4.8%) and much better than the general decline in economic growth in Europe of 1.5%. Israel might have had even better results if not for the continued sabotaging of the natural gas line from Egypt which caused the country to replace that source of energy by purchasing fuel from more expensive suppliers. There is, of course, no telling ultimately what will happen with that situation, as much depends on how the political situation in Egypt evolves. In 2012, Israel demonstrated economic growth of 3.3%, which was more than double the OECD average of 1.4%. The only two major economies of the world that did better than Israel were India, w

Ex-Im Approves $15.7 Million Direct Loan to Finance Export of American-made Fire Trucks to Nigeria Washington, D.C. – The board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a $15.7 million direct loan to the state government of Lagos, Nigeria, to underwrite the purchase of 32 American fire-fighting vehicles manufactured by W.S. Darley & Co. (Darley) of Itasca, Ill. The loan, which is in line with the Administration’s “Doing Business in Africa Campaign,” will support approximately 100 U.S. jobs, according to bank estimates derived from Departments of Commerce and Labor data and methodology. Moreover, 65 percent of the financing is expected to support American small businesses. “This transaction reflects our continued commitment to increasing exports to sub-Saharan Africa while supporting American small-business jobs,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. “Additionally, the financing, which targets one of our

The Nigerian Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina is renown nationally for his passion for the development of the agricultural sector of the country. I recall an experience at the BRACED summit held in Asaba, Delta State where he would not yield to the ten minutes assigned to him by the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Ms Evelyn Oputu to make his presentation. He was widely applauded. I was present at the summit as an investment attraction consultant Like the ebullient Minister for Agriculture, we believe that agriculture should move from its present level of subsistence to a level where modern techniques and technologies are employed in its practice, particularly in an environment as ours where agriculture is the major occupation of the people. As a matter of fact, engaging the youths, especially the educated and fresh graduates would drastically reduce the level of unemployment currently faced in the country. In 2013 therefore, we have p