By Emeka Aginam

At the just concluded Columbia Business School, CBS,  annual Entrepreneurs in Residence week held recently in  New York,  the Chief Executive Officer of the Computer Warehouse, CWG, Austin Okere highlighted the potentials of the   Nigeria’s business competitiveness.

Addressing  group of graduate students in the Private Equity and Entrepreneurship in Africa Course , Okere  said that  Nigeria  is among the  top three investment  destinations in Africa.

Quoting figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),  he   reiterated that of the $57 billion  Foreign Direct Investment  that Africa attracted last year, Nigeria accounted for bulk of the investment of  about $5.6b, which is very significant given that only six other countries attracted investments above $3b.

This is coming on the heels of Nigeria’s rating in the latest release of the World Bank Doing Business Report.

Advising the audience to explore other viable geographies, Austin reiterated his view earlier expressed at the World Economic Forum Meeting of the Global Champions in Tianjin, China, that the new frontiers for business expansion following saturation in the developed markets were Africa and Latin America.

While cautioning against wholesale importation of western business model templates into  emerging markets given the different geographies, peoples and cultures, he advised  local partnerships to explore the immense opportunities in a mutually beneficial manner.

According to him, significant milestones have been achieved in important areas such as pervasive broadband access, making it possible to pursue hitherto impossible business models in Cloud Computing and eCommerce.