Buhari holds investment talk with Japanese companies

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday held investment talks with top officials of Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Toyota Group, at the margins of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7), holding in Yokohama, Japan.

A statement issued by Femi Adesina Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity) said the Japan Bank for International Cooperation led by its Deputy Governor, Mr Nobumitsu Hayashi, indicated its interest in supporting projects in which Japanese companies are involved in Nigeria.

According to the statement, the bank said it had lots of resources dedicated for that purpose and would be interested in oil and gas, and investments in infrastructure.

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The Presidency affirmed that President Buhari welcomed the bank, informing the team that Nigeria had introduced the Ease of Doing Business, and bureaucratic bottlenecks were being cleared off the way.

The statement also said that at a bilateral meeting with Toyota Tsusho, a part of the Toyota conglomerate, President/CEO of the group, Ichiro Kashitani, indicated interest in sectors like energy, healthcare and automobiles, saying Toyota would be delighted to have presence all over Nigeria.

Kashitani said Toyota Tsusho wished to also build an advanced medical diagnostics centre, which would foreclose need for foreign travel to obtain cutting edge medical diagnosis.

President Buhari urged the group to also consider setting up a car assembly plant, noting that Nigeria had the capacity to absorb the investment for positive returns.

At another meeting with the Prime Minister of Algeria, Noureddine Bedoui, President Buhari counselled that the political programme in the country be faithfully executed, which would lead to general elections as soon as possible.

“Algeria is a good pan-Africanist nation, with a lot of influence over the continent,” the President said.

Prime Minister Bedoui said dialogue was in progress with all stakeholders leading to elections, hopefully by end of the year.