President Muhammadu Buhari has held investment talks with top officials of Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Toyota Group.
The meeting was held on Thursday at the margins of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7), in Yokohama, Japan.
According to Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, the meeting was led by the Deputy Governor of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Mr. Nobumitsu Hayashi, who indicated interest in supporting projects in which Japanese companies are involved in Nigeria.
The bank said it had lots of resources dedicated for that purpose and would be interested in oil and gas, and investments in infrastructure.
President Buhari welcomed the bank, informing the team that Nigeria had introduced the Ease of Doing Business, and bureaucratic bottlenecks were being cleared off the way.
At a bilateral meeting with Toyota Tsusho, a part of the Toyota conglomerate, President of the group, Ichiro Kashitani, indicated interest in sectors like energy, healthcare and automobiles, saying Toyota would be delighted to have presence all over Nigeria.
Kashitani said Toyota Tsusho would wish to also build an advanced medical diagnostics centre, which would foreclose the need for foreign travel to obtain cutting edge medical diagnosis.
President Buhari urged the group to also consider setting up a car assembly plant, noting that Nigeria has the capacity to absorb the investment for positive returns.
At another meeting with the Prime Minister of Algeria, Noureddine Bedoui, President Buhari counseled that the political programme in the country be faithfully executed, which would lead to general elections as soon as possible.
“Algeria is a good pan-Africanist nation with a lot of influence over the continent,” the President said.
Prime Minister Bedoui said dialogue was in progress with all stakeholders leading to elections, hopefully by end of the year.
MM/GIK/APA