Tinubu to investors: If you’re not in Nigeria, you’re not in Africa

Chief Executive Officer of Oando Group, Wale Tinubu, has stated that any investor that is not in Nigeria has not started doing business in Africa

Tinubu noted that “as an investor, the reality is that if you are not in Nigeria, you are not in Africa”.

He said in addition to large population and market, there are skills and opportunities in Nigeria and potential investors should be part of the revolution.

Tinubu said Public-Private-Partnership had been successful in many sectors in Nigeria where the government created an enabling environment to allow entrepreneurs to step in and explore the opportunities.

He gave the example of the cement subsector, where because of the enabling environment created by government, Nigeria moved from net importer of cement to net exporter of the same product within seven years

“Seven years ago Nigeria was a net importer of cement when companies were shipping cement from Europe to dump in Nigeria.

“But, within the short period we convert the large limestone deposit in the country to a huge manufacturing sites.”

Tinubu also recalled that when he started Oando, foreign companies, including Total, Agip, Unipetrol and others, dominated the downstream marketing of the oil sector.

“Today, apart from Total some of these companies are either divesting or being taken over by indigenous investors.

“Today, we have many indigenous companies that have grown double of the sizes of the companies that earlier dominated the market,” he said.

Tinubu, however, underscored the need to invest in power infrastructure.

He said South Africa with about 50 million people consume 45,000mw of power while Nigeria with over 209 million population consume only 6000mw of power.