Innoson, Kam Industries’ successes hinged on Chinese model
The Bank of Industry (BoI) says the success stories of some of its customers such as Innoson Motors Nigeria Limited and Kam Industries could be attributed to the Chinese model.
Waheed Olagunju, acting managing director of the bank, said most of the bank’s successful customers were those leveraging on Chinese business model and technology.
Olagunju, who spoke in Abuja during China-Africa Trade Investment Summit, restated the commitment of the bank to providing adequate funding for all genuine industrialists, including small and medium enterprises.
The summit, which brought together participants from both the private and public sectors, discussed prospects and challenges in the Nigeria-China business relations.
President Mohammadu Buhari had recently struck an investment deal of $6bn in the key sectors of the Nigerian economy.
The BoI boss who spoke on the topic, ‘China-Nigeria: Leverage for National Growth’, said others like Mojec International Limited, a metering producing company, and Secure ID, manufacturer of smart cards, had equally adopted this model.
While underscoring the imperative of Nigeria business relation with China, Olagunju said a sizable number of the bank’s clients imported raw materials and machinery from China.
“A team of executives from BoI and some of its customers were on the presidential entourage to China. This helped in enhancing the bank’s strategic alliances in the country, as significant percentage of the bank’s clients import raw materials and machinery from China,” the BoI chief said.
In order to address the trade imbalance between the two countries, Olagunju stressed the need to add value to some of the nation’s manufacturing products.
While expressing the commitment of the development finance institution to continue to support the nation’s industrialisation process, he urged Nigerians to begin to look inward rather than blaming other countries for Nigeria’s economic woes.
Also speaking, Frank Jacobs, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said that as desirable as Nigeria’s business relation with China might look, efforts must be made by the present administration to come up with policies that would protect local industries.
He said the present status of trade relation which was skewed in favour of China should be addressed if Nigerians must derive maximum benefits from it.
According to him, the first step in that direction was to provide an enabling environment that would make goods manufactured in Nigeria compete favourably with those coming from China.
“The extent to which Nigeria can benefit from Chinese investment potential would depend on the mindset of government and this includes its political will to mobilise and deplore resources toward the provision of a positive and friendly investment climate,” Jacobs said.
“Appropriate infrastructure must be in place to attract and encourage investment in key sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, agriculture, solid minerals and technology development. Appropriate fiscal and monetary policies, such as attractive industrial incentives, adequate funding mechanisms, reasonable cost of funding should formulated and faithfully implemented,” he added.
Harrison Edeh