<p>Among
other considerations, Nigeria, unarguably, the most populous black country on
earth and Africa’s largest economy, has the unique advantages of huge market,
cheap labour, low 5 percent Value Added Tax, VAT and easy accessibility through
land, air including sea as a result of its population and central location in
the Africa continent.</p>



<p>This was
the submission of Brian Ebden, director, Teoo Universal Concepts, last week at the
Nigeria-South Africa Networking Seminar organized by Wesgro- a government
agency in Cape Town, founded ;  ;25 years ago to promote trade and investment
between South Africa and other parts of the world. </p>



<p>Simultaneously,
 ;Michael Gamwo, head of the Wesgro team,
re echoed ; Ebden’s position on the
Nigeria market attractions and strength in an interaction with OpenLife, at  ;Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, venue of the
event.</p>



<p>Gamwo, a
legal and an investment expert with many years of promoting trade and
investments across the continent stated that part of the reasons for Wesgro’s
unrelenting efforts in fostering small and medium entrepreneurial agreements
with its Nigerian partners is “the size of the Nigeria market. Size of market
overshadows other considerations like ease of doing business, political
stability etc. This is because ease of doing business, political stability,
security are also available in other countries but their market is small.
Therefore, Nigeria is unique and very important to us at Cape Town and indeed
any producer. Beside, Nigerian businessmen are very vibrant,” he said.</p>



<p>These
huge and largely untapped markets were the reasons Wesgro organized the
business interaction with potential partners in Nigeria for fresh engagements
in business.</p>



<p>Justifying
the pan African efforts, Gamwo argued that no foreign country can help Africa
countries develop its potential and create the desired jobs except Africans
themselves.</p>



<p> ;He maintained that Wesgro was established with
a clear mandate to harness and promote Cape Town comparative advantages in
trade export, investment, tourism and film with other countries across Africa and
to drive small and medium enterprise which is the bedrock of any economic
growth, “No foreign country can do that for you except we do it ourselves to
grow our local economies and create jobs for the youths.” ;  ;</p>



<p>He
therefore, called on African leaders and politicians to design anti corruption
mechanism and develop infrastructure including friendly policies for small
businesses to survive.</p>



<p>“Governments
in Africa must play its parts by doing what s right for business to grow. At
Wesgro, we are happy with the results we are getting in the small and medium
enterprises. We do business delegation for fresh engagements every month to
sign partnership and we achieve between four to five agreements in every
outing.”</p>



<p>Gamwo
further advised stakeholders not to be too excited about the African Continent
Free Trade Agreement saying that “it is not of much value to countries that are
not producing. If you are not producing, the implication is that you will be
absorbing products from producing countries because the products would be
landing in your local markets duty free with less or no tax. That would kill
your economy. It would kill economies that are not competitive.”</p>



<p>He added
that logistics headache in Africa deserves better consideration by governments
“African governments must address logistics challenges. For instance, it costs
more to move goods within Africa than from China or Europe. That shouldn’t be
so. Such situation rubbishes the positive aspects of AcFTA. Ports are
congested,” Gamwo stated. </p>



<p>Earlier,
in his welcome address, South Africa Consul General in Lagos, His Excellency,
Darkey Africa, admonished small business owners and entrepreneurs ; to take full advantage of the opportunity
presented by the Wesgro to sign partnership agreements with the visiting South African
entrepreneurs and ; ; grow their businesses
beyond the shores of Nigeria. He stated that both South and Nigeria governments
will continuously harmonise its age long relationship to develop policies that
will be favourable to entrepreneurs.</p>



<p>Many companies- products and service providers-from South Africa were available, throughout the week, sharing, displaying and explaining their products, competence and areas of collaborations to their Nigerian counterparts.</p>

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