LAGOS- In a bid to boost Nigeria Energy sector, a group of trade delegates from the republic of Japan with the support of its government has indicated interest to invest in the economy of Nigeria in the area of oil and gas, automobile plant and agriculture.
Addressing newsmen at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airports, Lagos, the, Japan ’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Nishimura Yasutoshi noted that they were looking at Nigerian’s sales as they said it has big population more than Japan.
It would be recalled that President Umar Musa Yar’Adua had recently assured the citizenry of stable power supply by the year 2011, just as the country’s mega watts has risen to over 3,000 from the 1,500 mega watts that it dropped to early this year.
Yasutoshi noted; “This is our first forum, and Nigeria is one of the most important countries for Japan because of some reasons. One is, there is big population more than Japan , and it is a potential for our market. Other reason is that there are more potential for our oil and natural gas and also other minerals. Nigeria is a good country; it has good leadership in West Africa . So we chose Nigeria as the first country of this delegation”.
He expressed confidence in the ability of the delegation to fast track the promotion and increase of investment and trade between the two countries, stressing that the Japanese Government will invest more in Nigeria, just as he stated the delegate which is made up of Japan’s Ambassador to Nigeria , Toshitsugu Vesawa, Yasuyuki Fujishima, Executive Vice Chairman of Sojitz Corporation, an oil and gas conglomerate in Tokyo , Japan had good discussion,
“And we are very honoured to meet the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. We are very glad for him to have accepted all our members of delegation to the Government House. We had a good discussion with him and other ministers, especially the minister for Energy. We also agreed on business forum,” he said.
He also disclosed that fruitful discussions were held with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and three Ministers in charge of Petroleum, gas and power on how to support the projects financially.
His words: “So we have to support financially for these projects. One of our members has already decided to look for a good place for a factory. I hope this delegation fast track the promotion and increase of investment and trade between these two countries.
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