President Jonathan and his host, Uhuru Kenyatta
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Vimal Shah of Bidco (East Africa) and Sani Dangote of Dangote Group, at the Nigeria–Kenya Business Forum in Nairobi on Friday (September 6).
Areas of collaborative efforts that would mutually benefit Nigeria and Kenya have been identified at the Nigeria-Kenya Business Forum that ended on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya. Announcing these areas of collaboration, Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group, stated the need to improve trade and investment by trying to trade more between the two countries.
“We want to assist in capacity building in cassava bread and Staple Crop Processing Zones. These are areas we can assist and help Kenya. Nigeria is to assist Kenya with e-wallet technology for fertiliser distribution. It is something that Kenya should replicate,” Dangote stressed. He observed, however, that, in agriculture, Kenya “is far ahead of Nigeria in terms of cut flower, export of tea and coffee. He therefore pointed out that efforts are going to be made to replicate what Kenyans are doing in agro-processing on pine apple, vegetables and tomatoes in Nigeria.
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya observed the need to “facilitate our people’s traveling with ease and without restriction.” He has therefore given directives to facilitate visa regime to ensure that all Nigerian business people willing to invest in Kenya are extended five to 10 years, without any restriction. “We want to encourage Nigerians to invest in Kenya and also to encourage our own government department to understand that it is not necessarily true that all good things come from Western Europe.” He announced the conclusion of a number of MoUs, on double taxation, protection of investment, cooperation on agriculture, tourism and on other areas.
From Kenya’s Chamber of Commerce came the disclosure that Kenya and Nigeria can partner in transfer of knowledge and technology on animal feed production and agroprocessing. “Due to significant underutilisation of agricultural land in Nigeria, Kenya can partner to increase investment in agriculture and reduce Nigeria’s reliance on food import. Both countries identified areas of comparative advantages: Kenya: tea, coffee and cut flowers. Nigeria: palm oil, rubber and cocoa.”
President Goodluck Jonathan, responding, said “we are totally committed in building strong links between Kenya and Nigeria in terms of investment. He lamented the poor integration between the two countries, expressing the belief that Nigeria from the west coast and Kenya from the east coast, working together, will be a basis to uplift Africa.” He advised that “we must encourage intra-African trade, adding values to our raw materials, be it farm produce or solid minerals.” Without doing that, he added, “we will be exporting jobs and creating poverty.
“The only way we can create jobs and wealth is to add value to whatever we produce,” the President remarked, regretting that “internal trade within Africa is quite deplorable. Within EU countries, it is about 70 percent. Within the Asian countries, it is about 50 percent. Within Africa, it is between 10 and 12 per cent. We need to improve on that.” The president said Infrastructure is one of the major reasons for the dismal figure.
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