Finance

Export is growing rapidly

Last year goods worth LTL 282 million were exported from Lithuania to Nigeria, within three months of this year the value of the goods exported totalled LTL 93,9 million. This is more than the amount exported to Ireland, Austria and Greece taken together. Recently the Head of the group of Lithuanian enterprises Libros holdingas Tomas Juška has been to Nigeria on business 8 times. A well-known businessman is convinced that within 5-10 years Nigeria will become an important Lithuania’s business direction. Other Lithuanian business people call Tomas Juška “a pathfinder” who was the first to have an idea to look for business possibilities in Nigeria, the country with a population of 150 million people.

The Head of Libros holdingas is convinced that the Lithuanians could earn a living from building, electricity production, and agricultural business in Nigeria. “What Western Europe regards as old-fashioned business is especially relevant in Nigeria. This country needs builders, electricians, and agriculturists. Agriculture is developed very badly there, let alone infrastructure. We do not talk about the information technologies market, we speak about the country in which the supply of high-quality products rather than demand for them is a problem”, said the businessman.

Not afraid of dangers

Possible dangers do not arose any fears in the Lithuanians who have become interested in the Nigerian market. “I have been to Nigeria 8 times and never did I need a body guard. In Lithuania people are killed every day too. I think that the issue of safety is exaggerated in Nigeria”, said the Head of Libros holdingas Tomas Juška to Made in Lithuania. According to him, stereotypes about Nigeria are very strong therefore not many Western people dare set up business there. “Even here, in Lithuania, if I said that it rains in bullets there and people are being kidnapped, many would believe, but when I explain that there are plenty of business opportunities, many people look at me with distrust”, says the businessman. By the way, both last and this summer pirates kidnapped Lithuanian sailors in Nigeria.

Workers are being recruited

The company JP Architektūra intends to create regional and urban development plans in Nigeria. The first works have already been started – the Lithuanians are designing a territory of 290 square kilometres between the financial centre of Nigeria and the Ogun State. Representatives of the Company see niches in Nigeria for providing urban planning services, creating regional and urban development plans, setting up a local company. The Lithuanians have undertaken the first works already. “At the present time there are jungles, separate villages and roads, which lead nowhere there. All business people who are going to Nigeria will encounter that. Here in Lithuania we are small, and everything is the opposite there – the state is large, desires are great, money and projects are also large”, said the architect of JP Architektūra Lukas Narutis. He mentioned that in Nigeria he would work on the project of a new electric power station, new railway. The Company Ranga IV plans construction works and is looking for workers. The Company intends to build roads, bridges, viaducts, and apartment houses. That country lacks qualified labour force, so supervisors of works, geodesists would be recruited her in Lithuania and taken there.

“Everybody looks at Nigeria with fearfulness but it is quite a rich country that has natural resources. The country is comparatively underdeveloped, thus the need for construction is great. There is a shortage of qualified labour force, experience in the building sector”, spoke Simonas Šileikis, Development Director of Ranga Group. The Company does not see any high risk for business in Nigeria – it would carry out state rather than private commissions. According to Simonas Šileikis, if we manage to coordinate commissions at the governmental level, the risk is minimal; it is much more complicated to work in a private sector. On the other hand, Ranga IV would only perform works; it would not invest. Three years ago a large Lithuanian concern Achema was thinking of building a fertilizer plant in Nigeria but later the concern gave up this idea.

Local people are friendly

Lithuanian business people who work in Nigeria notice that the local people receive the Lithuanians in a friendly way. It is not important from what state you arrived; the most important thing is that you are from Europe. Many business people from Lebanon work in Nigeria; the British have worked there since olden times, the number of Chinese and Russians is also rapidly on the increase. “Foreigners take interest in the Nigerian market, this is testified to by the fact that it is impossible to find a room in a hotel in Abuja on an ordinary day, though there are many medium-sized hotels, large Hilton, Sheraton hotels where one pays about one thousand litas per night”, said Tomas Juška. The Head of Libros holdingas who is going to engage in trade of furniture, parquet and doors manufactured in Lithuania in Nigeria said that the Company had established an office in the city of Lagos already, and three Lithuanians work there.

The Minister’s encouragement to invest

When Chuka Odom, Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, met with Lithuanian business people in Vilnius recently, he urged them to move business to and provide services in Nigeria. Chuka Odom stated that the quality of Lithuanian goods or services did not differ from that of the goods manufactured in Western Europe. “But the price differs, and this is what is important to us”, said the Minister. According to him, there are lots of business opportunities in the sectors of building, energy and organisation of land exploitation. The Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory of Abuja Chuka Odomis is convinced that the distance between Nigeria and Lithuania would not be an obstacle to co-operation. “Headquarters of Nigerian companies are located in London therefore there will be no obstacles at all to solving the problems that will arise”, assured the Minister. According to him, the issue of safety should not frighten Lithuanian business people. “This is an exaggerated matter. You may make enquiries – plane tickets from London and other large European capitals to Nigeria are sold out immediately because business people have found a niche in that state”, said the Minister. It is quite safe to develop one’s business in Nigeria: In Baghdad bombs explode every day but investors work in Iraqi all the same”.


Chuka Odom
Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja