[Nigeria Business Week] Courting economic expansion one deal at a time

International organisations have shown an increased interest in the Nigerian economy since the stablization of the dollar and the exit from the recent crisis that befell the country - from ICT through Agribusiness and Hospitality, industries are stepping up their game in Africa’s most populous nation. There’s no shortage of opinions on how best to court local and international investments. More efficient factoring in the financial has  recently been fingered as a way to ease business and procure investor confidence.

Of course not much long-term, real development can be achieved without the presence of internet, and Google has taken a step to fix this, launching the Google Station to provide free public wi-fi in Nigeria. The workforce is also being trained to manage today’s technology-saturated environment, and SAP Africa kicked off its Skills Program in Nigeria this very week.

Even the process of obtaining loans has been greased by the wheels of technology. A welcome development, given that access to liquidity in Nigeria has always been and remains a problem at the moment of investing in ideas. Fintech platforms such as Paylater app appear to have facilitated access to loans, their numbers showing nearly one million users and over $17m in loans to date.

This ease of doing business through digitization has not escaped Nigerian banks at all. On the contrary, Diamond Bank has recorded three million digital customers in this year’s second quarter.

On the Oil and Gas front, Shell has invested in Education in Kwara State, donating science labs to a secondary school, and Oando released its profit-after-tax statement for the year’s first half.

International transactions will see a peak with Turkey, as the Turkish Exporters Assembly reached an agreement with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry to step up bilateral trade between both countries.