By MICHAEL EBOH
Symbion Power, a United States’ power engineering company and the Corporate Council on Africa, CCA, sad they are set to invest heavily in the Nigeria economy and to help boost the country’s trade and investment climate, as well as other countries in the African continent.

Speaking at the LiveWell Initiative (LWI) Grand Health Bazaar, GHB, 2012, in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer, Symbion Power, Mr. Paul Hinks,who also doubles as  Chairman, CCA,  said both organisation believe in the long term future of the African continent, especially Nigeria, and are interested in becoming a major player in Africa within the next five years.

According to him, Africa has finally got the attention of the United States and it is set to increase its presence in the continent, especially in Nigeria.

He disclosed that in the coming years, Nigeria will record much more interest from the United States and elsewhere, and there will be an increase in businesses seeking partnership with Nigerian firms and who would want to help contribute in making the country take its rightful place as the powerhouse of Africa.

“Whereas there has been a noticeable absence of US participation across the continent and the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) countries have made great advancements, America has already missed great opportunities because of a risk averse, overly conservative approach to business.

“But times have changed and world economies are not what they were in the past and at the same time Africa has impressive growth rates and impressive changes in governance,” he stated.

Hinks averred that Symbion and CCA’s approach to business is different, saying that they are ready to help support manpower development as well as helping small businesses in Nigeria and across Africa grow stronger and become self-reliant.

According to him, Symbion, which recently entered into a strategic partnership with Transcorp Plc to boost Nigeria’s power generating capacity, is not a run-of-the-mill foreign company that comes to Africa like some, to earn what it can in cash profits, to extract natural resources for our own benefit, or to exploit local people and local partners.

He said, “Symbion is a company that believes in building business that is sustainable, and we believe that this can only be achieved by developing local capacity and through investment in local people.  This investment starts with training.

“So our approach to business is different.  Everywhere we work, we have set up our own training schools where we take unskilled people and turn them into skilled workers.  We do this through a partnership with a training college located in Idaho in the United States.

“We support small local firms by buying them modern equipment that makes them stronger and more self-reliant, and we work in partnership with them to help them gain management experience.”