General Electric To Make Nigeria Its Investment Hub

While American companies like IBM have chosen Kenya for their Hub, American blue chip conglomerate, General Electric (GE), has expressed plans to make Nigeria a hub for its African businesses as it enlarges its operations on the continent

According to by the President and CEO of GE Nigeria, Lazarus Angbazo, “The reason we are focusing on Nigeria is that it is big, it has tremendous upside opportunities compared to other African Countries.”

He added that “Compared to Nigeria’s GDP of $270 billion or budget ($31 billion) it is easy to understand the scope of GE operations globally.”

GE derives less than 2 percent of its revenue from Africa with Nigeria contributing about 25-30 percent of or between $700m – $900m for 2011. The company’s revenues in 2011 clocked over $150 billion the same financial year.

While pointing out that it is essential to grow Africa’s contribution to GE’s global business, Angbazo told BusinessDay at the weekend that GE  would be willing to invest in some of the power generating and healthcare projects and provide the initial funding that is critical to getting such projects off the ground.

“If a project is viable and sustainable, we would be willing to commit up to 15 percent capital on the project. We will leverage our relationship with other financials in the world for our customers, both local and international banks,” he said.

According to him, GE plans to bring in technology, experience, a network of partners, tremendous wherewithal, transparency and an ethical way of doing business.