Dogara enjoins Swedish investors to invest in critical infrastructure

Renews call for international donor conference on rebuilding North-East
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has urged Swedish investors to take advantage of enormous opportunities in Nigeria, especially in crucial infrastructure including power and information communication technology, to create job opportunities for its teeming population.

Dogara, who spoke yesterday when the Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Inger Ulvedt, led a delegation to his office on a courtesy visit, also commended the government and people of Sweden for their humanitarian assistance to victims of insurgency in North-East.

He expressed appreciation to the Ambassador “for the initiative on the convening of a donor conference for the North-East and the Lake Chad region in Nigeria, which was done in Oslo, Norway, in February last year.”

The Speaker said the Swedish gesture was a flip to his constant calls for such a conference, stressing that he was motivated to make the call based on the fact that similar donor meeting was organised for Kosovo and Iraq as well.

He told the visitors that Nigeria remains the second largest trade partner with Sweden in Sub-Sahara Africa, and that the country values the existing cordial relationship with Sweden and hopes to deepen it the more for the overall benefits of citizens of both countries.

Dogara said: “Swedish companies or corporate citizens are not strangers to business in Nigeria. Whether it is in the area of telecommunications, we remember Ericson handsets. I commend the ingenuity and creativity of the Swedish people in the areas of automobile and power generation; they are doing wonderfully well.

“So, we cannot help but call for more engagement in this direction and more inflow of foreign direct investment in Nigeria in the area of agriculture, infrastructure, power, renewable energy, ICT, industries, especially the automobiles.”

The Speaker pledged total support and power of law to treaties and agreements between the two countries.

In her remarks, the Swedish Ambassador said her country “is interested in collaborating with the Nigerian government in various sectors” and would like to broaden the existing bilateral agreements between them.

She said apart from supporting Nigerian students in areas of innovation at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State and Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto State, her country had been the biggest donor to the Nigerian humanitarian trust fund for the victims of violence in the North-East where they have built small houses, schools and hospitals, among other interventions.