Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma has said that some Chinese firms have indicated interest in investing about one billion dollars in the Nigerian economy within the next 12 to 24 months.
Chukwuma made this known today, Monday when he had a meeting Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with a delegation from the Innoson Group and some Chinese business interests, including Shangdong Broadcasting Group.
Innoson Group Chairman said that his company is collaborating with three Chinese firms: Shangdong Broadcasting Group, and Shangdong Cable Interactive Services regarded as leading biggest TV operators, and Inspur Group, said to be China’s foremost leader in Cloud Computing solution suppliers and IT service provider.
Chief Chukwuma detailed the investments intended by the Chinese firms to include:
*a credit facility of $300m for local production and supply of 5-8 million Set-Top Boxes for the Digital Switch-Over in broadcasting in the country to meet a target date of June 2017.
*an investment of $100m to establish technology-based Direct-To-Home Digital Bing Television Stations.
*a further investment of $600m for Smart City CCTV camera and IT solutions for taxation, both using Cloud Computing, and E-Education IT solutions with big data centers in all federal universities and polytechnics in the country.
According to the Chairman of Innoson Group, “every plan to make a success of all these projects have been concluded between our two parties.”
Responding, Vice President Osinbajo said that the Muhammadu Buhari administration would continue to actively pursue a plan for the massive manufacturing and production of goods in the country as much as possible.
He said that in doing so, the government will collaborate with business interests that can facilitate the plan, adding that manufacturing in Nigeria is a primary objective of the government.
He said that it is because of the administration’s commitment to spur manufacturing and local production in the country that the initiative of Innoson Group to work with Chinese partners is being addressed as a strategic collaboration.
The Vice President said: “the initiative is bound to yield very good fruits and do very well,” adding also that the timing is right “as we are at a point that we must engage technological solutions in our development plans.”
Professsor Osinbajo said that the importance of competition and competitive pricing in such an effort cannot be overemphasized, saying: “in all we try to do, we believe there must be competition, competitive prices and plans.”
The Deputy Minister of the Communist Party in Shandong Province and Chairman of the Shandong Broadcasting Group, Mr. Liu Baoju, and Mr. Huang Gang, Senior Vice President of Inspur Group were among dignitaries in the business delegation at the meeting. [myad]
