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The investor as a global citizen
Moshood Na’Allah
One of the consequences of the increasing interaction of people across the various global political, economic and racial divides is the realisation by many nations that they can accelerate their economic development by attracting capital in form of investments from other countries. This is more so for poor countries of the developing world. With most of them still battling with the provision of the basic necessities and economies characterised by high unemployment rate, low capital development, total lack of infrastructure and a poorly developed entrepreneurship culture, economic development will certainly remain a pipe dream for most of the countries if they are left to their own devices.
Therefore, for such countries, attracting foreign investment is not just a matter of lip-service, but also an issue that hits at the very core of survival and well-being of their citizenry. The reasons for this are not far-fetched. Such investments result in creation of jobs, leading to economic empowerment of their nationals and most times serving as catalysts for economic growth and development. Most times, the so-called “transfer of technology” from the developed to the developing nations is easily achieved as the local populace gain various degrees of technical competence while working for such foreign investors or through training programmes organised for them by the foreign firms.
This is a fact realised by President Olusegun Obasanjo as soon as he was sworn into office in 1999. Apart from instituting a lot of institutional and legal reforms with the aim of creating an investment-friendly climate, the President has also travelled to many countries of the world to sell Nigeria to reputable, world-class business organisations. Despite the best efforts of government at various levels, huge investments are still needed to bring basic infrastructure at par with what obtains in other parts of the world.
But the President’s and indeed, Nigeria’s efforts have not been a total failure. Some foreign multinational firms have been able to see the enormous potential for business activities available in Nigeria through the sheer size of the country and dynamism of its citizens.
No doubt, the most significant foreign investment that has come to Nigeria since 1999 is in the telecommunications sector. Though the government had deregulated the sector with the creation of the Nigerian Communications Commission as a regulatory body for the industry in 1992, the granting of digital mobile licences to two network operators, MTN Nigeria and Econet Wireless International, as it was known in January 2001, is now generally regarded as a watershed in the history of telecommunications development in Nigeria.
Other leading global players in telecoms like Vodafone, Vodacom and others would even not attempt bidding for licence. The chief executive officer of Vodacom, Alan-knott Craig, reportedly sneered at the opportunity to invest in Nigeria while describing the country as a haven for fraudsters. For those companies, the risk inherent in Nigeria was just too much to be dabbled into. Such was the concern about the unfriendliness of Nigeria’s investment climate that the share price of the parent company of MTN Nigeria dropped on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange immediately the company announced its investment in Nigeria.
But the two companies are undeterred. They soldier on and have been joined by the government owned M-Tel and the second national carrier, Globacom.
The two pioneers, MTN and EWN, have however had to make a huge investment in infrastructure development to be able to bring the industry to this enviable position. While many people can freely communicate with their loved ones through GSM phones today, very few know the enormous challenges the service providers encounter daily to make the services available.
•Na’Allah wrote from 16, Stadium Road, Ilorin, Kwara State.
The PUNCH, Tuesday, September 27, 2005
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