Union Jack waving in the wind.
British International Investment Plc, the UK government’s development finance institution, opened an office in Nigeria this week and said it aims to commit $200 million before the end of the year
“We intend to invest about a billion dollars every year in Africa and a larger proportion of that investment will come to Nigeria,” Benson Adenuga, who will lead the new office, said in an interview on Wednesday in Lagos. “When you have that focus and you have that level of exposure you want to ensure that you have the people on ground who are going to push that investment agenda.”
The office will be located in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, and will serve as regional headquarters for BII’s West African operations. It will be the agency’s fourth office on the continent and joins operations in South Africa, Kenya and Egypt.
The lender said last year it plans to invest $6 billion in Africa over the next five years in areas ranging from renewable power and digital infrastructure to supporting women-owned businesses. In Nigeria, it will support government’s development initiatives through investments in key sectors such as food security, power infrastructure and manufacturing, according to Adenuga.
Since taking office in May, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has been on a drive to revive one of Africa’s biggest economies after years of economic stagnation. He has ended costly fuel subsidies, eased foreign-exchange controls, begun overhauling Nigeria’s chronically inadequate power sector, and declared a state of emergency to improve food security threatened by surging inflation.
BII plans to complete investments in two Nigerian agriculture and processing firms by year-end after signing deals to invest $26.5 million in AFEX Commodities Exchange Ltd., Adenuga said. “We see the emergency on Nigerian food security; we see the infrastructure gap, so there’s a lot that needs to be done.”
Bloomberg Report
