Nigeria should be open for business to companies wanting to relocate their operations from China as a result of the corona virus

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Historically, nations have always picked up the pieces when others have problems that affect industrial production and commerce. In living memory, the biggest such development was after World War Two as the US poached all of Germany’s rocket scientists and countries like Australia and Argentina gave citizenship to some of their best brains. Israel signed up some of the best World War Two pilots when she was founded in 1948. It was they who helped her prosecute the Six Day War in 1967

(2) Nigeria has always been asleep when such upheavals take place. We never react to developments to take advantage of them. For instance, why did Nigeria not recruit all those Libyan military equipment manufacturers who were making armaments for Gaddafi when his regime fell? Just imagine the tanks, assault rifles and armoured personnel carriers they would have been manufacturing for the Nigerian military today

(3) Now, we have the unfortunate coronavirus, which is forcing many companies to relocate from China but alas, Nigeria has been caught napping again. Do you all know that several fashion retailers that manufacture clothing in coronavirus-hit China are already in talks with Turkish firms about shifting production to Turkey? One of them is predicting new orders worth up to $2bn. China has a market of $170bn worth of ready-to-wear exports and about 1% of these orders will now be shifting to Turkey

(4) Everybody else is making similar plans to welcome producers leaving China but alas, the African giant is not alive to what is going on. For instance, Polish fashion retailer LPP has said it is in talks with factories in Turkey, Bangladesh and Vietnam as a backup plan if Chinese production delays continue

(4) One area where we should be making a killing is in groundnut processing. China is the world’s largest groundnut producer, with India and Nigeria as numbers two and three respectively. We should be telling all those crushing plants that make groundnut oil, groundnut meal, etc that they are welcome to come and open shop in Nigeria. We already produce 3m tonnes, so local supply will not be a problem

(5) Across the oilseed and edible nuts sectors, Nigeria is the ideal location for all those food processing companies wishing to relocate their Chinese factories. We should have a target of attracting at least 10% of the companies that process coconuts, cashews, oil palms, soyabeans, shea nuts, etc in China. We have the land, raw materials, skilled workforce, abundant cheap labour and internal market to support their operations

(6) China is also a mega processor of crude oil as the total amount of petroleum it processed in 2019 added up to 651.98m tonnes, or 13.04m barrels per day. Nigeria should be screaming from the rooftops that we are eternally ready to welcome any refinery that wants to relocate its facility. We actually already have the refineries, so all they have to do is buy them and carry out upgrades

(7) Now, if you ask me, metals is where Nigeria could really make a killing. Do you know that the price of copper, a barometer for the health of the global economy, have dived more than 12% since mid-January, as the coronavirus outbreak pushed China to extend a shutdown in its manufacturing regions? We want all those steel companies in Nigeria yesterday. In fact, President Buhari should be in China as we speak, negotiating terms with the Chinese

(8) If we cannot use this opportunity to get Ajaokuta up and running, we will have thrown away the chance of a lifetime. Wuhan, which has a high concentration of high-tech manufacturing firms, represents about 1.8% of China's GDP and is the seventh largest economy in China, with key industries including steel, automobiles and technology. I basically want the whole of Wuhan’s industrial estate relocated to Ajaokuta next week

(9) Hyundai of South Korea has suspended its car production because of problems with the supply of parts from its operation in China and local Chinese firms like Wing Sang Electrical, which makes products such as hair-straighteners and blow-dryers in Guangdong province, have shut up shop. President Buhari should be at the Abuja airport on a daily basis, welcoming all these guys to Nigeria

(10) Two areas where we can actually move to today are in railway carriage assembly and electricity transformer production. China manufacturers railway carriages and transformers for the African market. With their factories facing lengthy shutdowns, we should be telling the Chinese to relocate all their plants to Nigeria. It makes economic sense for them to do so anyway but will Nigeria seize the moment?