Adapts to local or regional peculiarities — Dr. Oluwole
By Victoria Ojeme and Fortune Eromosele – Abuja
The Italian government has, recently, announced plans to increase its investments in Nigeria, stating that trade between Nigeria and Italy has reached two billion Euros.
This is despite the first Corona-virus case in Nigeria coming from an Italian citizen who arrived in the country from Milan last week.
Speaking in Abuja, at a forum to introduce the Italian business community and its local partners to the activities of the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) and the Italian Export Credit Agency (SACE-SIMEST), the Ambassador of Italy to Nigeria, Stefano Pontesilli, disclosed that his country’s investments in Nigeria were mainly in the oil and gas industry and across a few critical sectors of the country.
According to him, trade and investment between both countries enjoyed a 30 per cent increase last year, noting that this year, the volume had already risen by 10 per cent.
Pontesilli added that because of the importance of trade relations between both countries, Italy’s visa rejection rate as it concerns Nigeria is the lowest among Schenghen countries.
Also speaking, Trade Commissioner, Italian Trade Agency, Alessandro Gerbino, disclosed that despite the rising trade between both nations, Italian market share in Nigeria was still below average.
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According to him, this means that there are definitely margins to do better and there are a lot of opportunities for Italian and Nigerian companies to do business.
He identified priority areas of Italian investment in Nigeria to include agro-industrial machinery and food processing machinery along the way to packaging, storage; adding that everything that goes from the field to the supermarket is the area of excellence of Italy.
According to him, Italy is very famous for being able to certify a perfect combination of technology that goes from the source to the consumer at the highest performance.
He said, “Italy is a country that made its fortune on its ability to transform raw materials.
Italy does not have raw materials on its own, but we are one of the big economies in the world and what we have done, we have achieved and transformed raw materials that we sourced as well and after that, because we develop the technology, we sold the technology abroad and those ones, our competitors in some areas, they did it with our technology.
“Nigeria has raw materials and wants to diversify its economy. I think the most natural thing that comes to mind is that Italy has excellent machinery. High-performing machinery to produce high-quality products. Products that can be used or re-exported to rich markets overseas.”
Gerbino further stated that the outcome of these trade potentials must be an increase in cooperation in the business between Italy and Nigeria.
He said, “As of this day, we are sending several Nigerian companies to meet Italian suppliers for the industries that I mentioned. There are companies that are in Milan for the textile industry. next week another group of companies is leaving the leather processing technologies.
And in March, we are having an Italian delegation in plastic and packaging technologies. There are an exhibition and pavilion in Lagos, Nigeria, which will be the first official Italian pavilion in march.
“We are very happy and we believe we are going to have a lot of attention from Nigerian companies and actually we are hoping to receive a lot of Nigerian companies to seek Italian suppliers of technology.”
VANGUARD had earlier reported how an Italian national imported the COVID-19 virus into the country through the Lagos Airport on February 25th, 2020.
Currently, the Italian government has recorded 400 affected COVID-19 cases while the death toll has risen to 52.
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Reacting to the Italian Delegation which is expected to arrive in Nigeria this month, the former President of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) Dr. Steven Oluwole said, “At the moment there are international guidelines which can be adapted to local or regional peculiarities.
“The Ministry of Health guidelines may take differences in lifestyles across the diverse country into consideration. You will notice the extreme measures taken even by countries that do not normally quarantine. China did what some may call extreme when it started. Imagine if there is a need to quarantine Abuja, Ibadan, and Lagos! It is not well-advised to hold International Conferences now.
‘Someone coming from Ghana may have been to the epicenter of the infection or to Japan, South Korea, or Iran! Tracking all itineraries and potential incubation periods will be daunting. No country should use bravado to combat coronavirus.
