As part of the efforts to promote trade relationship between the United States and Nigeria, the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), the premier American organisation devoted to U.S.-Africa business relations, and its members including Procter & Gamble, IBM, Symbion Power, Citi Group, Phillips Consulting and US Embassy Economic section have agreed to work with Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to improve relationship with Nigeria.
A delegation of the CCA, led by its West Africa Lead, Ekenem Isichei, who visited Osinbajo, recently stated that Nigeria is a priority country for its members as they have been working to promote U.S.-Nigeria trade and investment for over a decade.
Isichei briefed the Vice President on the recent activities of the CCA in Nigeria, which included recent ministerial visits to the Ministers of Information, Aviation, Transportation, Trade Industry and Investment, and Interior.
On his own part, Mr. George Nassar, the Managing Director of Procter & Gamble (P&G) Nigeria, a member company of the CCA, stated that his company has invested over $300million and created over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs through its manufacturing facilities in Nigeria. He added that his company currently produces over 80 per cent of its products in Nigeria and is interested in making the country its exporting hub for West Africa, while also expanding its business operations in Nigeria.
However, it is important to note that the Vice President will be delivering the keynote address at the upcoming US-Africa Business Summit in Addis Ababa next week, which would have in attendance, heads of state of different countries, key influencers across Africa and over 1000 private sector representatives.
While receiving the delegates from the CCA, Osinbajo, stated that the present administration was very much interested in the initiatives of the CCA, especially those that would provide very effective solutions to the country challenges within a short period of time. “One of the most important goals of this administration is to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive and the government is looking at a proper import substitution regime for the business environment” said the Vice President.
He added that CCA’s excellent initiatives would be beneficial to the administration.
Other members of the delegation also shared their investment plans and called for more favorable economic policies. CCA is the premier American organization devoted to U.S.-Africa business relations and includes as members more than 180 companies, which represent nearly 85 percent of total U.S. private sector investments in Africa.
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