Speaker 1: Hey, I'm good evening everyone, and welcome to another money
Speaker 1: space with me carlu Aja. On the space, we're talking money,
Speaker 1: we're talking the economy. We're talking personal finance, and the
Speaker 1: whole idea is to make this personal to you, to
Speaker 1: make you a better investor, and talk about the economy
Speaker 1: in general. Now, if you've not noticed, if you're following us,
Speaker 1: the past week, we've been on the theme of the economy.
Speaker 1: We've done taxes, we've done dipecification, we've done the textile companies.
Speaker 1: We try to bring in many you know, should we
Speaker 1: say many parts of the niger economy into focus. How
Speaker 1: can we grow the economy, How can we make Nige
Speaker 1: economy better to work for the taxpayers an even for
Speaker 1: the government, because the better economy, of course, try this
Speaker 1: to better governance from the government. That's what we're just
Speaker 1: on that theme of. So this week we're talking, of
Speaker 1: course diversification and that's a word every Nigerian has heard,
Speaker 1: because every government wants to diversify the economy. You know,
Speaker 1: we want to know, take away our alliance on crude
Speaker 1: oil and to have an economy that grows and delivers
Speaker 1: for Nigeral people, not just via crude oil. That's always
Speaker 1: with a mantra in Nigeria. So how well have we
Speaker 1: done so far? Should we stay from say nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: If you put the data for currently where we are
Speaker 1: in Nigeria, you would find that the niger economy itself
Speaker 1: is diversified. The niger economy is diversified according to oil
Speaker 1: and non oil. The non oil part is booming. The
Speaker 1: oil part was in a recession until recently. If you
Speaker 1: also go to the non oil part and say what
Speaker 1: constitutes that growth in Nigeria, you would find agriculture, you
Speaker 1: would find services, you would find telecoms. These are the
Speaker 1: folks that are growing the Nigerian economy. Crude oil employs
Speaker 1: very little and it's a very rather small part of
Speaker 1: the niger economy. I don't think it's up to fifteen
Speaker 1: percent of the GDP of Nigeria. The problem really is
Speaker 1: the diversification of revenues, because Nigeria has not been able
Speaker 1: to diversify high revenues, especially have foreign exchange revenues. So
Speaker 1: you then have a situation where crude oil, with less
Speaker 1: than fifteen percent of the GDP of Nigeria, contributes somewhere
Speaker 1: between eighty nine to ninety four or so of the
Speaker 1: forest revenues of Nigeria. Keep in mind, the largest revenue
Speaker 1: source for Nigeria is corporate income taxes V eighty, customs income,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But because Nigeria imports a lot.
Speaker 1: Nigeria used to imports, how fuels are pmst just before
Speaker 1: we got down go to refinery. We do a lot
Speaker 1: of food imports. We import a lot of wheat, a
Speaker 1: lot of fish. We do a lot of invisibles. So
Speaker 1: when we travel abroad for medicals or we travel of
Speaker 1: broad for education, those are also quote unquote imports. Because
Speaker 1: we have a high import overhang in Nigeria, it means
Speaker 1: that we've got to end a lot of foreign exchange
Speaker 1: just to keep the economy running. Give it keep in
Speaker 1: mind again and try to imports a lot of machineries
Speaker 1: that I used to then manufacture goods in Nigeria. So
Speaker 1: the something is that you have an economy in Nigeria
Speaker 1: that exports a lot of products. Just one product crude oil,
Speaker 1: and it ends eighty nine percent of the forests. It
Speaker 1: gets from that crude oil, right and from that crude oil,
Speaker 1: we're then expected to then maintain a naira whod's value
Speaker 1: is based on the crude oil export numbers and the
Speaker 1: crude oil export price. Huge strain on the Central Bank
Speaker 1: of Nigeria's reserves, which is why you then see the
Speaker 1: naira the local currency devalue, depreciate and have a lower
Speaker 1: purchasing power because it's all in a circle. If we
Speaker 1: can't export crude oil, the impact is felt on the
Speaker 1: local currency. We can't with our quanity, it is not
Speaker 1: should we say have a higher value meaning that imports
Speaker 1: are more expensive, mean that that important inflation then happens,
Speaker 1: and that vicious circle then happens in Nigeria. When we
Speaker 1: cannot we see import cheaper. The solution, clearly, guys, is
Speaker 1: simple if we were able to diversify the economy, right,
Speaker 1: if we're were to have an economy where not just
Speaker 1: crude oil was gen written forest Nigeria, but we had agriculture,
Speaker 1: we had petrochemicals, if we had entertainment, and perhaps we
Speaker 1: reduce the share of crude oil by increasing the share
Speaker 1: of the other factors. So instead of just having eighty
Speaker 1: nine percent from crude oil, we got thirty percent from
Speaker 1: crude oil, but we increased the share of manufacturing. The
Speaker 1: share of entertainment, the share of agriculture too also earn
Speaker 1: for x and to also employ Nigerian's locally. If we
Speaker 1: had that sort of economy, they were not so tied
Speaker 1: into crude oil prices and production. The economy is now
Speaker 1: more than specified and can withstand external shocks. Right now,
Speaker 1: the biggest external shock is the election of the new
Speaker 1: of the new president in America. What happens if America says, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to expand crude oil export from America, We're
Speaker 1: gonna go to India, We're gonna go to the EU.
Speaker 1: Those are Nigeria's traditional market. Whatch you then mean that?
Speaker 1: Of course Nigeria would then have to look for more
Speaker 1: places to export crude oil and I export in US.
Speaker 1: For keep in mind, oil prices do not have to
Speaker 1: go down for niger economy to suffer from this mono
Speaker 1: you know, Mono should say economy that we have. If
Speaker 1: our markets are attacked i e. A new supplier goes
Speaker 1: to those markets and offers a lower price than Nigeria offers,
Speaker 1: then the economy will feel the impact of not being diversified.
Speaker 1: And again, diversification means jobs. The more we are diversified agriculture.
Speaker 1: The more we are diversified to trade and manufacturing, those
Speaker 1: are jobs being created. So we want to we want
Speaker 1: to have to talk this week to like a real
Speaker 1: practitioner in the space. We want to talk to a
Speaker 1: company that is literally discharge of devastation. I like this.
Speaker 1: Particular companies are number one, they're working on the state.
Speaker 1: Number two, they're working on the federal government. Number three
Speaker 1: they are money, so we say they are supported manufacturing
Speaker 1: trade services. They are create jobs on show, they are
Speaker 1: bringing in technology on show, they are creating export endings
Speaker 1: for nine tuia all at the same time. Hence, I
Speaker 1: wanted to just introduce them in so we could talk
Speaker 1: to David like fire no fireside chat, just talk see
Speaker 1: what they're doing, what can we learn from them, and
Speaker 1: then of course take it from there. I'm talking other
Speaker 1: than the guys in Alaro City in the Legals Free
Speaker 1: Trade Zone. I'm happy to have the ND here. I'm
Speaker 1: going to have him on mute so I can introduce
Speaker 1: himself them from there. I have a few questions for him,
Speaker 1: then we'll take from there. Welcome sir, how are you
Speaker 1: doing today?
Speaker 2: Good even name Carlus, Thank you very much, Thank you
Speaker 2: for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well, excellent, a lot.
Speaker 2: About your show and very excited to be here.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Thank you so much, sir. Do you mind introesting
Speaker 1: yourself just for folks. I don't know you, just your name,
Speaker 1: what you do company?
Speaker 2: Yeah, good evening everyone. My name is Yomi Adam Mola.
Speaker 3: I'm the managing director at Alto City. I'm also the
Speaker 3: Chairman West Africa for ren Government, which is the majority
Speaker 3: shareholder of a lot of city and also the largest
Speaker 3: private developer of special Economic Zones and cities in Africa.
Speaker 1: Wow, thank you well. First of all, just say types
Speaker 1: of being here, sir, I appreciate that. I know if
Speaker 1: you had my introduction about diversification, just go really into
Speaker 1: that diversification. The point I'm making is that Nigeria over
Speaker 1: the years has tried to diversify the economy. We have
Speaker 1: succeeded in that. We haven't diversified the foreign exchange and
Speaker 1: it's part of the economy. So we are now in
Speaker 1: this phase where if oil prices go down, it affects
Speaker 1: everything in Nigeria. It affects jobs, it affects inflation, it's
Speaker 1: affected revenues that states, local and Pello government gets in Nigeria.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about just trus question to you, how
Speaker 1: important is an economic diversification for my address long term
Speaker 1: strategy to reduce it relies on crude oil. I mean,
Speaker 1: talk to us about diversification if you will, if you can,
Speaker 1: thank you, Carlu.
Speaker 3: I mean, indeed, economic diversification is actually essential. You know,
Speaker 3: building a more resilient economy requires us to diversify. You know,
Speaker 3: if you look at where we are focused oil, nothing
Speaker 3: wrong with oil or gas, but when you consider price volatility,
Speaker 3: if you look at the global trends towards renewables, it's
Speaker 3: clear that for long term planning and execution, we need
Speaker 3: to be looking at sectors. Some of which you mentioned
Speaker 3: are Greek technology, manufacturing, and various services, especially business process outsourcing.
Speaker 3: I think, and I'll speak more to that perhaps later,
Speaker 3: but yeah, we need to create diversity of revenue streams.
Speaker 2: We need more jobs.
Speaker 3: You know, in twenty fifty, Nigeria is likely to be
Speaker 3: the third largest country.
Speaker 2: In the world after India and China.
Speaker 3: Jobs are critical to social and political stability. We need
Speaker 3: to be focused on managing unemployment. We need to be
Speaker 3: focused on growing a middle class, and jobs are an
Speaker 3: essential part of that. That versification of the economy, as
Speaker 3: we said, is going to be linked hand in hand
Speaker 3: with job creation, which is essential.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, just the primer. Someone's already asking me a question
Speaker 1: on DM what is the relationship with the Alaro City
Speaker 1: and the freetrads And just to give us a primer,
Speaker 1: just so we situate ourselves geographically, what's the relationship?
Speaker 3: Thank you, And that's a great question because I actually
Speaker 3: took note. There's a small point of clarification. Alaro City
Speaker 3: is located in the Leaki Free Zone the Legos Free Zone,
Speaker 3: So both of those are two prominent free.
Speaker 2: Zones in Nigeria, both in Legos.
Speaker 3: So the Lucky Free Zone is the largest free zone
Speaker 3: in West Africa. It is a sixteen thousand, five hundred
Speaker 3: head tests by comparison Victoria Islands approximately eight hundred head
Speaker 3: tests to give you a sense here. So in the
Speaker 3: Leaky Free Zone you have a portion managed by Leaky
Speaker 3: Free Zone Development Company, lots investors there, including a number
Speaker 3: of Chinese investors. You have Dangote Industries where the fertilizer
Speaker 3: plant and the refinery are and then you have Alara
Speaker 3: City which has a number of light industry mixed use
Speaker 3: players and lots of housing and mixed uses for retail
Speaker 3: and the rest at the Legos Free Zone which is
Speaker 3: located in close proximity to Luky Free Zone. Literally across
Speaker 3: the small you have the Leaky Deep Seeport. So that
Speaker 3: is where the new Leaky Deep support which is between
Speaker 3: you know, Chinese investors and the portant investors and then.
Speaker 2: Federal and state government in Nigeria legal state.
Speaker 3: So we are located Alto City in the northwest quadrant
Speaker 3: of the Leaky Free Zone. So all of the actors
Speaker 3: I've just mentioned, a lot of City is the new
Speaker 3: kid on the block. We launched in January twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: five years ago, so just over sixty months, and in
Speaker 3: that period we on boarded over seventy several countries excuse me,
Speaker 3: companies within the country, a number of foreign investors and
Speaker 3: a number of indigenous companies and conglomerates. We're also very
Speaker 3: proud to have a significant SME demographic within a lot
Speaker 3: of city. We believe that SMEs that are the heartbeat,
Speaker 3: the majority of.
Speaker 2: Employment is from SME.
Speaker 3: Is the majority of companies in the country, our SMEs,
Speaker 3: and we believe that SMBs are supposed to be able
Speaker 3: to benefit from the.
Speaker 2: Free zone regime in Nigeria.
Speaker 3: And so we're very proud to have a dedicated SME
Speaker 3: on cliff. We have preferential pricing and tarists for SME
Speaker 3: to encourage them to participate and benefit on the freezone region.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Interesting, that sounds massive, don't mind me saying. So that's massive.
Speaker 1: You've got a deep sea port, they've got the Chinese,
Speaker 1: the refineries, You've got you guys in there. That cluster
Speaker 1: alone in terms of GDP is larger than most regions
Speaker 1: in Nigeria. How is that aiding exports in Nigeria? That
Speaker 1: is there a connection with just building that cluster and
Speaker 1: should we say exports going from Nigeria I didn't know
Speaker 1: bus that we can say have gone up because of
Speaker 1: this this infratructory development.
Speaker 3: Oh sure, sure. You know, infrastructure creates an enabling environments.
Speaker 3: This lucky freezone access is in my opinion, the most
Speaker 3: prolific development corridor in the region, potentially in Africa. It's
Speaker 3: such a concentrated area. I mean in terms of billions
Speaker 3: of dollars have been spent between you know, the Dangote companies,
Speaker 3: including the projects including the refinery, like you did, a
Speaker 3: number of American companies Kellogg's Corgates coming at allat the city.
Speaker 2: We have Bua Group and Sterium.
Speaker 3: They have Canadian company Aerial Foods, Mantrak, Caterpillar, American brand Caterpillar,
Speaker 3: and again a number of indigenous players.
Speaker 2: So when you when you know, they say, when you
Speaker 2: build it, they will come.
Speaker 3: And if you an environment where there are you know,
Speaker 3: high quality infrastructure projects executed, so you have world class planet.
Speaker 3: You have good roads, it is a secure environment. You
Speaker 3: have electricity and a lot of city people are producing
Speaker 3: in twenty four to seven. We have a you know,
Speaker 3: power generation license, a power distribution license, and the brit
Speaker 3: in tech, whether you're in pharmaceuticals, whether in your logistics
Speaker 3: called storage or otherwise, you can have twenty four to
Speaker 3: seven power. It is predictable, there is power assurance. You
Speaker 3: can have internet right, so we we have a roll
Speaker 3: through the fiber. We've connected the site from kilometers away
Speaker 3: to ensure that there is fiber there with built in redundancy,
Speaker 3: so that there's fiber coming from different directions and we're
Speaker 3: going to further make it redundant by adding microwave radio.
Speaker 3: So that again we look at tech Earlier you talked
Speaker 3: about services in tech. Export of services is a very
Speaker 3: unique space that is very impactful for job creation for
Speaker 3: the young Nigeria highly educated, very dynamic, entrepreneurial language of
Speaker 3: Nasi English, which travels to a lot of the business
Speaker 3: community internationally, from call centers to tech support. We can
Speaker 3: compete effectively with Silicon Valley. We can compete with India,
Speaker 3: with China, with the Tel Aviv.
Speaker 2: If we have a.
Speaker 3: Coordinated environment with good Internet, you are exporting services, generating
Speaker 3: hard currency, improving income levels.
Speaker 2: And that trickles into the economy.
Speaker 3: So the freebooks provide a very robust and broad platform
Speaker 3: for every industry.
Speaker 2: Earlier you talked about exports.
Speaker 3: I just talked about export services, which is an area
Speaker 3: I think Nigerians to focus on. Indeed, the Vice President
Speaker 3: launched the Outsource to Nigeria Initiative, which is pushing and
Speaker 3: promoting a Nigeria to the world for a business process
Speaker 3: outsourcing EPO, but not just export.
Speaker 2: The free zones in Nigeria have very.
Speaker 3: Effectively facilitated significant investment all of the projects I've mentioned
Speaker 3: on more Now you see area is the largest market
Speaker 3: in West Africa as an example, right and it's the
Speaker 3: largest market in Africa in terms of the number of
Speaker 3: people and one of the largest economies. Now, when you
Speaker 3: look at investors looking to access market in Africa, Nigeria
Speaker 3: is always.
Speaker 2: One of the top of the list, if not the top.
Speaker 3: So when you have a free zone regime that creates
Speaker 3: a simplified ease of business environment with tax and twote incentives,
Speaker 3: they will come and when they come, they're closer to
Speaker 3: their market. So one of the most strategic and impressive
Speaker 3: things that government did going back to two thousand and
Speaker 3: two was when the President authorized for one hundred percent
Speaker 3: of what is produced or assembled in Nigerian free zones
Speaker 3: to be permitted to come into Nigeria.
Speaker 2: It is since that time to now the last two
Speaker 2: decades plus where.
Speaker 3: You have seen terms of billions invested into Nigeria. Before that,
Speaker 3: the free zone regime in Nigeria was not as robust,
Speaker 3: did not attract as much investment.
Speaker 1: So just to be clear, you can bring it in
Speaker 1: one hundred percent into the friezes and take it out
Speaker 1: one hundred percent to money, it's one hundred percent taxpay
Speaker 1: and all that to diffree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me let me clarify that.
Speaker 3: Sorry, calum so many free zones or let me say
Speaker 3: some free zones and historically Nigerian free zones, you have
Speaker 3: to export a portion of what is produced in the
Speaker 3: free zone outside of Nigeria and you would only be
Speaker 3: allowed to bring in a certain percent. Now because free
Speaker 3: zones and other industrial hubs in Bernin and Ghana, in
Speaker 3: Coude for a Cameroon, as far as Kenya are targeting
Speaker 3: the Nigerian market to make us competitive. The very wise
Speaker 3: thing that government did was to create a globally competitive
Speaker 3: free zone regime that has globally competitive tax and duty incentives.
Speaker 2: And then they said you don't have to export.
Speaker 3: You are permitted to export one hundred percent, but on
Speaker 3: the flip side, you are permitted to import one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: So it will be the multative player to satisfy the
Speaker 3: biggest market in Africa, Nigeria, the enterprises that are based
Speaker 3: in Nigeria. So instead of particularly within the context of
Speaker 3: Africa Free free trade Zone, free trade treaty, instead of
Speaker 3: having companies in other countries creating jobs, bringing technology, bringing
Speaker 3: investment to ben In, to god to Kenya, don't being
Speaker 3: products in the largest market in Nigeria. The wiest thing
Speaker 3: in Nigeria did was say, come and set up here.
Speaker 3: You can export to anywhere in the world and you
Speaker 3: will also be the Nigerian market. You can access the
Speaker 3: Nigerian market. And that's when we started to see significant
Speaker 3: investment increase into the free Yeah, so what the.
Speaker 2: By products you mentioned earlier?
Speaker 3: I took a note you said something about, you know,
Speaker 3: the high import overhead and needing to generate purpose, right,
Speaker 3: and you talked about going outside for education and going
Speaker 3: outside for health care. The beautiful thing about the Free
Speaker 3: Zone in Nigeria is that because they have allowed one
Speaker 3: hundred percent of what is producing the Free Zone to
Speaker 3: come into the country, it has really posted import substitution.
Speaker 2: So we're not looking for that dollar to go to Turkey,
Speaker 2: go to China, go to the buy to import.
Speaker 3: What we are saying is don't import, ready to use
Speaker 3: the reputed food produce it here.
Speaker 2: Be close to the market.
Speaker 3: You can be very priced competitive, reduce your logistics costs
Speaker 3: to satisfy the market has to be profitable.
Speaker 2: The accents this. So we have a company called Area
Speaker 2: of Foods.
Speaker 3: Before they came to Nigeria into allow the city almost
Speaker 3: five years ago.
Speaker 2: Nigeria was a net importer of r you t ready
Speaker 2: to use.
Speaker 3: The reputed food is the food that manutrition children internally
Speaker 3: displays children people that take for nutrient unic and USA
Speaker 3: ideas when they came into Nigeria, into Alar City in
Speaker 3: the last four and a half five years. Now Nigeria
Speaker 3: is a net exporter of that product. So one hundred
Speaker 3: of the demand from within Nigeria sat Aside from within
Speaker 3: Nigeria and from a Lara City, they're exporting to seventeen
Speaker 3: countries around the world. And now Nigeria has security in
Speaker 3: this space. It can all be provided without you mentioned
Speaker 3: the president of another country taking a decision.
Speaker 2: Without so this can hand anywhere being blocked. You can
Speaker 2: now do it. And it's the same thing with the detergent.
Speaker 3: So if you look at POA group Sterium z at
Speaker 3: Alara City, import detergent into Nigeria, clear the port and
Speaker 3: sell it. Now they produce it at Allaro City. They're
Speaker 3: not sent to Turkey or China anywhere else.
Speaker 2: They're producing it here. The jobs are here, the technology
Speaker 2: is here, and they're.
Speaker 1: Supplying the market, the Nigerian market, the Nigerian market, Nigerian
Speaker 1: and international.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, So the next focus is we've talked
Speaker 3: about services, let's.
Speaker 2: Talk about education and healthcare.
Speaker 3: The amount of money leaving Nigeria art currency to facilitate
Speaker 3: payment of school fees and medical bills. Let us offer
Speaker 3: a hand of partnership and let us also be more
Speaker 3: entrepreneurial and resilient. And let us bring some of that
Speaker 3: world class education and world class health care. Bring it
Speaker 3: into the zone. Capitalize on the incentives, bring equipment in
Speaker 3: duty free. Don't worry about expertise, They're not expert quotas.
Speaker 3: People can come in as required to service right and
Speaker 3: then now people can drive down the street or take
Speaker 3: a domestic flight to access world.
Speaker 2: Class health care or education. It is here in Nigeria.
Speaker 2: The jobs are in Nigeria. They pay tax is paid
Speaker 2: in Nigeria. So this is what we need to continue.
Speaker 3: Input substitution, promoting industrialization, promoting export including export of services.
Speaker 2: Which can help us accelerate job create. So we have
Speaker 2: a sister project.
Speaker 3: I mentioned that Endeavor is the best private developer, especially
Speaker 3: economics and cities. We have a project called Tatoo City
Speaker 3: in aerobic Kenya and this year launched a building where
Speaker 3: a BPO company a call center in one year has
Speaker 3: created eight thousand jobs for young people in Kenya. This
Speaker 3: is what our Sources to Nigeria initiative is looking to
Speaker 3: achieve in BPOs. So a lot of city wants to
Speaker 3: position to be a big part of that.
Speaker 1: So we're going to have that outsource since set up
Speaker 1: also in Nigeria in this city as well.
Speaker 3: Most definitely, so we're already working engaging with Outsources to
Speaker 3: Nigeria initiative. Some of the key one of the key
Speaker 3: factors are the enabling environment. Right, it's a lot of
Speaker 3: young people.
Speaker 1: With jobs, a little place to exactly.
Speaker 2: So all the all of the projects I.
Speaker 3: Talked about, the seaport, the refinery, the fertilizer plant, all
Speaker 3: of those international companies, Allara.
Speaker 2: Cities are lookid on the block.
Speaker 3: All of these projects are big, they ambitious, the very
Speaker 3: lord of and we're all complementary. But these projects have
Speaker 3: taken up a big portion of people's focus and investment.
Speaker 2: Seaports we find it where do all of the employees live?
Speaker 3: So a lot of city has I don't need right,
Speaker 3: This is within the wider context of a housing deficits
Speaker 3: in Nigeria, and so we have quickly become the largest developer,
Speaker 3: residential developer in the entire LeKi free zone.
Speaker 2: So we have over five hundred and.
Speaker 3: Fifty customers now serving the needs of people that are
Speaker 3: going to work in and around the freeze on that ecosystem.
Speaker 3: So it's not enough to have tax and BLUETO incentives.
Speaker 3: It's not enough to have big infrastructure projects. You have
Speaker 3: to have the ecosystem. You have to have the housing,
Speaker 3: have the retail, the leisure, you need to have the education,
Speaker 3: and you need to have the healthcare. And so a
Speaker 3: lot of city is a mixed use free zone, light industry, logistics, commercial,
Speaker 3: but we are focused on all those other quality of
Speaker 3: life areas, so enter, what's art, live venues.
Speaker 2: But yes, people are coming in because of housing, including
Speaker 2: BP so.
Speaker 3: They have they have icit, they have electricity, they have housing,
Speaker 3: they have infrastructure. So to your plot to, everybody has
Speaker 3: portable water, everybody has ICT fiber, everybody has sewage and
Speaker 3: it's a secure environment. So this is where investment can drive.
Speaker 3: So definitely, people very well possessed.
Speaker 1: Because I don't let me just tell you I've gotten
Speaker 1: I think about six or so dms, and they are
Speaker 1: all saying something to the effect of is he talking
Speaker 1: about Nigeria something to the defect of either people are
Speaker 1: asking is this in Nigeria or is this saying they
Speaker 1: want to build it? Or is it in the lucky
Speaker 1: that folks like, and I'm honest with you, folks are like,
Speaker 1: is he saying it's going to be done? Or this
Speaker 1: is already existing in Legos, Guys, It's already in Legos.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a data points pulled up here. Mister
Speaker 1: nonia I ny the ED of the Niger Expert Promotional
Speaker 1: councilor is saying as half year even be four, getting
Speaker 1: about two point seven billion in non oil exports, is
Speaker 1: not oil, not crude two point seven billion And that's
Speaker 1: what mister Only is saying. All this, you know, is
Speaker 1: quoting aerial foods. We're exported in seventeen countries Boa where
Speaker 1: thet gets coming in also going out. Ty you don't
Speaker 1: talk about ty logistics. I think is is that the
Speaker 1: offshore you're talking about.
Speaker 3: No, No, t Y Holdings, A company called t Y
Speaker 3: Holdings is breaking ground in the logistics space. Now if
Speaker 3: you look at supply chain, especially post COVID, if you
Speaker 3: look at in particular areas like whole storage, where there's
Speaker 3: such a deficiency.
Speaker 2: Goods. These A Bit Pharmaceuticals and the rest.
Speaker 3: T Y Holdings has taken a bold step and has
Speaker 3: come into the tree zone at a Laro City. It's
Speaker 3: taken over a ninety thousand square meter plot and they
Speaker 3: have built, working with Alara City, a grade a state
Speaker 3: of the arts logistics park like nothing that exists in Nigeria,
Speaker 3: specialist contractors, exceptionally high ceilings, room for automation and software
Speaker 3: to be used to do inventory management, value added services.
Speaker 3: It's the kind of thing that will make it easy
Speaker 3: for international manufacturers FMCG traders to keep it and so
Speaker 3: they have taken a bolt position. They have noted the
Speaker 3: proximity to the Lucky Deep Seaport. The Leaky Deep Seaport,
Speaker 3: which is also is alive on World. It's been built,
Speaker 3: it's been operational now two years. Is the largest and
Speaker 3: the deepest seaport in West Africa. So the largest vessel
Speaker 3: that can come into the Leaky Deep Seaport around the
Speaker 3: corner from a lot of city is I believe three
Speaker 3: and a half times the size in terms of the
Speaker 3: capacity of containers consignment and that that can come into
Speaker 3: a paper. So when you think about the efficiency and
Speaker 3: what it can mean for increase in trade import and export.
Speaker 2: Every one vessel can.
Speaker 3: Do three and a half times equivalent of three and
Speaker 3: a half vessels going into a paper, and given the
Speaker 3: science and depth of a paper, and so it is
Speaker 3: positioning Legos right. And remember Legos a lot of the
Speaker 3: trade with Nigeria and even some of the neighboring countries
Speaker 3: to the north that are landlocked.
Speaker 2: It comes to those parts.
Speaker 3: And so if you don't have the right enigbling infrastructure,
Speaker 3: or put it different way, if you have the wrong
Speaker 3: enabling infrastructure, that is the difference between an extra you know,
Speaker 3: seven hundred and fifty to two million jobs, more products
Speaker 3: reaching the market efficiently, more lives impacted. And so this
Speaker 3: critical infrastructure that the government and the private actors are pursuing,
Speaker 3: I think it is very critical.
Speaker 2: We all know about the.
Speaker 3: Lucky quite expressly, the rehability mentioned by Lego State. We
Speaker 3: all know about the federal Legos Calaban, the bit that
Speaker 3: is happening in Legos which goes to the Lucky for
Speaker 3: its own access along the Atlantic Ocean. And we all
Speaker 3: know about Jabut the road down but by Goben States,
Speaker 3: Craneberg Construction Company and By the way, when we talk
Speaker 3: about contributors to the norm oil economy, yeah we should.
Speaker 2: Not construction and real estate. Construction and real estate.
Speaker 3: Let me talk about the infrastructure projects. Let me talk
Speaker 3: about reducing the housing deficit. These are material contributors to
Speaker 3: the non oil sector. When tracking the economy.
Speaker 1: Essentially, what I'm hearing is they ask the crown printing
Speaker 1: to buy How did you build a buy set, build
Speaker 1: a port, build housing, build manufacturing. Don't tax them. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's essentially what I hear us doing. I'm hearing the
Speaker 1: deep sea port, let goods come in. The fiscal site
Speaker 1: has been taking care of zero imports, injury imports out,
Speaker 1: big huge advantage. I'm hearing world class infrastructure to maximize
Speaker 1: the you know the incentives that I given already warehousing.
Speaker 1: What about this digital economic zone? I'm interested in that
Speaker 1: because against folks are asking me do ordinary quote unquote
Speaker 1: Nigeria are they able to go in there like digital
Speaker 1: normald Well, they need that service. So fir also asking
Speaker 1: what is this digital economic zone? I hear you say
Speaker 1: there's power twenty four to seven. Does it mean if
Speaker 1: I'm in that zone and I have maybe my starlings
Speaker 1: I'm able to basically set up it not the heavy
Speaker 1: manufacturing down or the heavy realistic Is there also a
Speaker 1: space for me in the services side?
Speaker 3: You know, I pause for a second, Colum, because I
Speaker 3: enjoy there's a reason you're the host.
Speaker 2: I enjoy listening to you. I enjoyed your quote of
Speaker 2: the Grand Prince.
Speaker 3: You said it succinctly, and what you described is indeed
Speaker 3: the essence of what we are saying. There is a
Speaker 3: blueprint for how to push in virsualization, how to create jobs,
Speaker 3: and it does involve in an increasing globally competitive environment,
Speaker 3: in liberalized environment where you have is of business, you
Speaker 3: operating environment must be smooth, it must be easy to incorporate,
Speaker 3: it must be easy to bring in equipment and.
Speaker 2: People, and you must da and duty incentives. So that
Speaker 2: is indeed what we are saying.
Speaker 3: The seaport is one aspect the wise planning of the
Speaker 3: Lacky free zone is that there's also an airport that
Speaker 3: we've all probably heard about, the Leaky air grea international airport,
Speaker 3: which is the other side of the free zone.
Speaker 2: So the largest free zone in the.
Speaker 3: Region are potted by airport and an airport. The seaport
Speaker 3: is up and we've all seen the announcements and are
Speaker 3: tracking it from the legal.
Speaker 2: Government and we believe that that airport will come up.
Speaker 2: And I have to give credit quickly before I answer
Speaker 2: your question, Calu.
Speaker 3: The Lego State government is a partner, as you alluded
Speaker 3: to in the beginning, to reendeavor in allow of city,
Speaker 3: and I think the Lego State government is probably the
Speaker 3: most progressive and business friendly subnational at least certainly one
Speaker 3: of the most progressive and business friendly on the continent
Speaker 3: when you look at the projects and the infrastructure projects,
Speaker 3: the PPP models they're pursuing.
Speaker 2: And so without that kind of support, that enabling environment, the.
Speaker 3: Support for critical infrastructure, that seaport, you can't do what
Speaker 3: you described and really correct.
Speaker 2: So now to the tech.
Speaker 3: Yes, we have at Allar City a client called it
Speaker 3: Mosto known as Talent City to some Talent City now
Speaker 3: Itana has received approvals to host the first digital economic
Speaker 3: zone in Africa.
Speaker 2: And so what that is is they have come in
Speaker 2: in a physical sense to a lot of city.
Speaker 3: They have taken a position, they have registered as a
Speaker 3: free zone and their core business is to host a
Speaker 3: cloud based and I want to apologize, okay to anybody
Speaker 3: who is exceptionally savely on technology.
Speaker 2: I am not, and I'm exceptionally The reversal, from my
Speaker 2: understanding is that they.
Speaker 3: Have They have set up a digital economic zone that
Speaker 3: allows a digital cloud based community of users to to
Speaker 3: to subscribe and to come into that community to set
Speaker 3: up and the free zone platforms that allow them to
Speaker 3: undertake cloud based activities right in a tax free and
Speaker 3: efficient manner. They are already operational. They are registering people.
Speaker 3: I don't believe they are fully operational, and they are
Speaker 3: working closely with nepside, the Nigeria and Export Processing Zones
Speaker 3: of the regulator RESONTS to bring that to full operational
Speaker 3: status and full suite of services. But that is only
Speaker 3: one aspect and a very exciting aspect. But when you
Speaker 3: look at incubators, when you look at companies that have
Speaker 3: hundreds of thousands of desks where people are sitting down
Speaker 3: picking up the phone to answer questions and provide tech support,
Speaker 3: When you look at programmers quoders who want to take
Speaker 3: jobs from around the world on a deadline, charge a
Speaker 3: fee and get paid to deliver high quality service, then
Speaker 3: my kind of layman understanding is we need a few
Speaker 3: of these very talented and entrepreneur people right do long
Speaker 3: commute to being stock in traffic with their backpacks.
Speaker 2: And lab We need them one place where they can live.
Speaker 3: They can commute, They can be outdoor door with internet,
Speaker 3: they can exchange ideas and be created in a community
Speaker 3: within themselves. Now one man, one woman, one laptop, you
Speaker 3: can set up your free Zone enterprise. You can export
Speaker 3: your services. You can compete with anybody around the world
Speaker 3: to offer a technological service to a company, to an individual,
Speaker 3: to a production house. And if you have twenty four
Speaker 3: hour hour and if your internet is up twenty four
Speaker 3: hours a day, then I have no reason to believe
Speaker 3: that Nigeria will not compete favorably amongst the best in
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 2: It is when you are stoking traffic. It is when
Speaker 2: you are in the checkpoint. Is when there is.
Speaker 3: Downtime that your competitors globally will take that job and
Speaker 3: will deliver. And because you're in the freeze of the
Speaker 3: income you generate, so that allows you to be more
Speaker 3: competitive with your pricing.
Speaker 2: So free Zone is not just about attracting foreunt investment.
Speaker 2: It's about attracting investment.
Speaker 3: BOA is a Nigeria group, a number of our clients,
Speaker 3: including the SMME is a Nigerian companies. They are other
Speaker 3: businesses expansion and they are having presence in many.
Speaker 2: Parts of the country including the Free Zone and.
Speaker 3: Where we are seeing the region of investment because of
Speaker 3: the regime that has been provided the infrastructure, the utilities
Speaker 3: is the Free Zone and that's where the jobs are
Speaker 3: coming from, including in tech.
Speaker 1: All right, I guess I'm forget. If you want to
Speaker 1: have a question or a comment, send me a DM.
Speaker 1: I'm just having a few issues adding people. Just send
Speaker 1: me a DM and I'm sure I read it back
Speaker 1: to Missulu and so just talking about how do you
Speaker 1: guys generate power? Prejeaty twenty four to seven power high
Speaker 1: generating power? In that power should we say that we're
Speaker 1: in the quote unquote green you know green environment and
Speaker 1: environmental social governance? How is that power? Is it clean power?
Speaker 1: Is that a plus for us? I just want to
Speaker 1: get your take on that.
Speaker 2: Absolute calum.
Speaker 3: I mean, sustainability is the pillar for us and we
Speaker 3: have to also take you from what.
Speaker 2: Is happening around the world.
Speaker 3: Even if you want to be effective and impowerful in
Speaker 3: expecting investment, you have to be s You have to
Speaker 3: be environmentally but at the same time you must provide
Speaker 3: a predictable supply of power, and so we don't do
Speaker 3: diesel generators. In fact, diesel generators are restricted only to
Speaker 3: contingency use in critical industries, hospitals, data centers, things like that.
Speaker 3: A number of companies that allow our city today are
Speaker 3: operating with our generator.
Speaker 2: So we have moved to gas, which is cleaner.
Speaker 3: Right, We're currently on compress natural gas and we're in
Speaker 3: the process of tying it to have access to pipe
Speaker 3: natural gas. We have our own equipment which we own
Speaker 3: end to end, and as I mentioned earlier, we've been
Speaker 3: licensed by regulation.
Speaker 2: We must be licensed separately. Were licensed.
Speaker 3: One of our subsidiaries is licensed as a power generation
Speaker 3: company and one is licensed as a power distribution company.
Speaker 2: And so we generate and articulate power to your doorstep.
Speaker 2: We connect to you. If you want to produce twenty
Speaker 2: four hours a day, you're going to have power. If
Speaker 2: you want to if you live there, you have power
Speaker 2: twenty four seven. But we can stop there.
Speaker 3: Right, we must do better, and so at a lot
Speaker 3: of city we encourage and promot moot use of solar panels.
Speaker 2: If and again we have a number of industries and factories.
Speaker 3: So we have significant roof space, you know, ten thousand
Speaker 3: squameters worth of roof space that can generate number of
Speaker 3: metal words of power from solar. And so we have
Speaker 3: a hybrid source grade that allows us to take power
Speaker 3: from solar, and we actually prioritize solar cleaner, more cost
Speaker 3: effective to supply clients, and we.
Speaker 2: Encourage clients to use solar.
Speaker 3: A number of our clients are actually using or applying
Speaker 3: to use solar insular within their plot for their roof.
Speaker 3: But when you think about the fact that we have
Speaker 3: over six hundred clients and allow the city between residential
Speaker 3: and industrial, I don't know if we have up to
Speaker 3: five generators.
Speaker 2: Five generators are or use some contingency.
Speaker 1: Only Wow, a place where generators in Nigeria are contingency.
Speaker 1: That's that's this is this is the dream Nigeria. This
Speaker 1: was the Nigeria We're supposed to be, right. I wish
Speaker 1: we had five of these all across the coast and
Speaker 1: even in inland in Nigeria. We would be the issue
Speaker 1: of defistication I think would have been solved because if
Speaker 1: we then go into manufacturing agriculture upcountry and like you
Speaker 1: said services. If we're going to entertainments and all that,
Speaker 1: we bring in tons of revenues. Again, like the pogniture
Speaker 1: of making sight. It's not just the important exports, but
Speaker 1: in Nigerian companies themselves going to Allaro, creating local jobs,
Speaker 1: creating local world local productivity, then exporting the productivity. It's
Speaker 1: it's marvelous. I'm shocked I haven't heard about this in
Speaker 1: more detail. Really really, again, that's what most of the
Speaker 1: comments are saying. This is fantastic. What's the direct rule
Speaker 1: should we say of Allaro and contributed Niger's economic diversification?
Speaker 1: Just a bit more expansive direct role Alaro has come
Speaker 1: in Nigeria has gotten this, don't I know you talked
Speaker 1: about the aral and all that any more examples of this?
Speaker 2: Sure? Sure.
Speaker 3: So before I just answer that, I just want to
Speaker 3: say that again there's a blueprint when you said that
Speaker 3: we need more of this. Every geopolitical zone needs geopolitical
Speaker 3: zone needs multiple of these. This is how countries have industrialized,
Speaker 3: This is how jobs have been created, income levels have risen,
Speaker 3: middle classes have grown.
Speaker 2: It is not a mystery. And so I fully align
Speaker 2: with what you say, we need more of this, it's
Speaker 2: a good thing.
Speaker 3: I think the free zones are a key HAVNO to
Speaker 3: diversify the economy, to promote industry, create jobs, and very
Speaker 3: importantly to create it's sustainable, predictable environment. I think in
Speaker 3: postitution across the board is key when you talk about
Speaker 3: our role. Allow City, as I mentioned, is a PIPP
Speaker 3: public private partnership between DEVA and Level State and we
Speaker 3: are the company. Our joint mentioned company or PPP company
Speaker 3: is the one that has applied to the federal government.
Speaker 3: And I joined Export Zones to be a zone free
Speaker 3: zone management company and so we have an allocation of
Speaker 3: land within the Leaky free Zone. We're conceived on two
Speaker 3: thousand hectares of land within the northwest quartern of the
Speaker 3: Leaky Free Zone. And our responsibility is to manage the project.
Speaker 3: What does manage the project mean in some countries? And
Speaker 3: I just mean this from a factory perspective, not as
Speaker 3: a critique. It's just to let you know the journey.
Speaker 2: What is our role? What do we do? In some
Speaker 2: free zones?
Speaker 3: Government will put road, security, government will put electricity, government
Speaker 3: will put water through which governments will give you internet. Right,
Speaker 3: let me speak for allur city and for most free zones,
Speaker 3: to my knowledge, you get a piece of land. So
Speaker 3: every road you see electricity, everything under the ground, the
Speaker 3: wet and the dry ducks for services, the fencing you
Speaker 3: see when we talk about power, when we talk about showage,
Speaker 3: when we talk about portable water storage, treatment, reticulation to
Speaker 3: your plot. So you don't have industrial grade book all
Speaker 3: over the place. You have water by pipe right when
Speaker 3: you look at all of that. Somebody has to do that.
Speaker 3: That is the zone manager, that is Alaro City. So
Speaker 3: that's the environment I talk about that makes it easy
Speaker 3: for the Mexican international investors. On my setup, it's plug
Speaker 3: and play, so you don't have to come and build
Speaker 3: a factory, you know, in a bush. Let me say,
Speaker 3: and it starts from planning work up. If you're an
Speaker 3: industrial area in Alarosity, your neighbor will be industrial. If
Speaker 3: you're in a residential area, by use high density, low density,
Speaker 3: medium density, the streets will have consistency in terms of
Speaker 3: the facade. You wake up and find a warehouse next
Speaker 3: to a villa, and you will not find a banking
Speaker 3: hall next to you know, a detergent manufacturers. Yes, this
Speaker 3: is the organizing I mean, it starts with planning. The
Speaker 3: planning is where you will not loose. World class planning
Speaker 3: is how you start. Then you execute the infrastructure. The
Speaker 3: planning is alarocity, the infra larocity fundamentals, right road and
Speaker 3: the rest the utilities. The power that this that licensing,
Speaker 3: the execution, the capex, the manpower, the operational maintenance is
Speaker 3: all the zone manager. And then you develop directly, you
Speaker 3: develop with partners or you market to investors who will
Speaker 3: come in and develop facilities, warehouses, commercial buildings, residential and
Speaker 3: the rest. And so what you have is hundreds of
Speaker 3: millions of dollars. We are not you know, the Lucky
Speaker 3: deep support. We're not the refinery. We're not you know,
Speaker 3: fifteen billion dollar investment. Orthough, it is clearly a multi
Speaker 3: billion dollar project and five years ago hundreds of millions
Speaker 3: of dollars have been invested a number of our clients
Speaker 3: are having systemic and national impact. And Alaro City is
Speaker 3: only one portion of the Lucky Free Zone. And so
Speaker 3: when you look at the free zone regime in Nigeria
Speaker 3: and you look at the jobs created, is very creative.
Speaker 3: Over five thousand jobs directed in direct alarcity only and
Speaker 3: not talking about other parts of the Free Zone or
Speaker 3: the Lebel's Free Zone.
Speaker 2: It is it is clear that the income levels.
Speaker 3: Around that area, the development around that area, the occupancy
Speaker 3: rates for accommodation around that area, the rate of development
Speaker 3: of residential in particular uses that have all come up.
Speaker 3: And without the free zone region, without alarcity on the
Speaker 3: other zones, it would just be land.
Speaker 2: In the arena. We must be in the arena. And
Speaker 2: once you are in the arena, and.
Speaker 3: Ideally with the support of government working hand in hand,
Speaker 3: you can create a lot of value and.
Speaker 2: A lot of it.
Speaker 1: Because I look at Ethiopia. Ethiopia has got this extensive
Speaker 1: you know, partnership with the Chinese where they have acres
Speaker 1: of manufacturing. The Chinese have this should we say cluster,
Speaker 1: this soul employed tons of Ethiopians, tons a lot of them.
Speaker 1: And the export this closed you know to shops, branch
Speaker 1: name shops outside the country. So if you look at Bangladesh,
Speaker 1: look at Vietnam making billions from the exports of just sewing.
Speaker 1: You know, so when you say every state should have
Speaker 1: this and just thinking of you know, you go to
Speaker 1: Nigeria where you have very very cheaply but lots of
Speaker 1: folks are unemployed, and you can have this massive you know,
Speaker 1: free trade zones that is just targeted just sewing tailoring.
Speaker 1: That's it. We just tailor a hoodie and you export
Speaker 1: and billions coming. So it just tie into wards. You're
Speaker 1: saying that we can do much more than just chasing
Speaker 1: down the oil avenue if the states the regions can
Speaker 1: come together have just one free trade zone near an
Speaker 1: airport or a seaport or a real evacuation route. This
Speaker 1: is small or less baked in. So you know, I
Speaker 1: hear what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Carlo, if I can't just come in, you see,
Speaker 3: because even when you talk about every state, and I'll
Speaker 3: also link it back to Ethiopia, we have to be
Speaker 3: very clear about how this thing happens. You know, for instance,
Speaker 3: Allaro city, right, we have the enabling environment and we
Speaker 3: have immense support. We have now decided how do we
Speaker 3: allocate resources. The state is doing the Lacky Aquare Expressway.
Speaker 3: The state is a stakeholder shareholder excuse me, in the
Speaker 3: Lucky deep support. The state is promoting the international airport.
Speaker 3: All of the capital being deployed inside a lot of city.
Speaker 3: This capital is private, private company, and so we have
Speaker 3: to note even in Ethiopia, when you have the right
Speaker 3: policy framework, you can attract investment. But to retain that
Speaker 3: investment and to give investors comfort, there must be consistency
Speaker 3: in government policy. There must be ability, because nobody's coming
Speaker 3: to build those roads, build the power plants, generation distribution,
Speaker 3: pull the icity and articulated. Nobody's coming to warehouses unless
Speaker 3: they are comfortable that I'll not wake up tomorrow. And
Speaker 3: the entire free zone regime has changed. And so when
Speaker 3: you look at countries that may be run into trouble
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden you don't have access to
Speaker 3: a GOA, I've got grows an Opportunity Act.
Speaker 2: So you go to set up in the.
Speaker 3: Country and in the country. Funny things that America says
Speaker 3: you no longer for a goa. It was a platform
Speaker 3: ADI where you wanted to set up facility or access
Speaker 3: Europe and America.
Speaker 2: Now you can access.
Speaker 3: The investment winds down and people who stopped coming and
Speaker 3: the new ones that were planning to come on NOTT
Speaker 3: come right if you now play around with them.
Speaker 1: Think last year, I'm not sure, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Facts policy For instance, I said that if you if
Speaker 3: you know the freezone history until one hundred percent of
Speaker 3: what is produced to assembly in the Free Zone. Until
Speaker 3: that was permitted, there was only a certain amount of
Speaker 3: the reson in terms of pinions of dollars we have
Speaker 3: seen coming in the last twenty years. It's when there
Speaker 3: was a policy direction that made clear we are the
Speaker 3: largest market. If you are here, you will have access
Speaker 3: to this absolute investment. If you take away, for instance,
Speaker 3: such a policy and you say no longer you cannot
Speaker 3: access the custom's territory or within tax exemption, that's what
Speaker 3: want to drive investment, that's what makes people nervous. And
Speaker 3: so for these stakes to do this, for federal to
Speaker 3: do this, for any country to do this, one of
Speaker 3: the most important tools is having a listening government that
Speaker 3: will provide a globally competitive regime and will provide consistency
Speaker 3: and predictability. And that's where many Africa it's a national
Speaker 3: and federal fail. So it's just important to highlight that.
Speaker 1: So in the end, really we have to come back
Speaker 1: to policy. We have to really come back to policy
Speaker 1: and say we have to have consistency in policy and
Speaker 1: all that believe that that's what we need, not just
Speaker 1: the instructure, but the policy. The governors and all that.
Speaker 1: Without that, you an'll know what topp Okay, just as
Speaker 1: the side I have a d M. So just asking like,
Speaker 1: is this expensive if I have a factory in say
Speaker 1: Catcher and all the counter I mean ballpark? Is this
Speaker 1: expensive to be in this place? And if you can
Speaker 1: answer that, but Polko like this is too good to
Speaker 1: be true?
Speaker 2: Is it? Like?
Speaker 1: Is it is it expensive to move in here or
Speaker 1: to set up Nigia? What would it cost just ballpark?
Speaker 1: And if it's something you can answer, yeah.
Speaker 2: Listen, you know I have my my my You said
Speaker 2: I'm the MD, but I still have my some this
Speaker 2: CA and I've been not to market.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I know I got you guys just talk
Speaker 1: about the schedule. But that's true. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So what I will what I will say, please hop
Speaker 2: on our website.
Speaker 3: What I will say is come out and visit us
Speaker 3: right in the Ley phrase or down the expressway.
Speaker 2: It is not too good to be true.
Speaker 3: It's just it's just good and it is groomy and
Speaker 3: it is something that we are very proud. We believe
Speaker 3: many people can benefit from. Now, what about price? Is
Speaker 3: the following for anybody that wants to set up a factory, seme,
Speaker 3: a multinational national conglomerate or otherwise. I can evidence to
Speaker 3: anybody in any industry that the tax and beauty incentive,
Speaker 3: the savings, the benefits you will get from that is
Speaker 3: going to end up paying for your land such that
Speaker 3: when you look at your business as a growing concern
Speaker 3: over time, you're actually going to get that land for
Speaker 3: free because the tax builty incentive that you benefit from
Speaker 3: by being in a free zone talk less of the
Speaker 3: peace of mind and the easier operating environment.
Speaker 2: Right is going to be greater. That benefit is going
Speaker 2: to be greater than the cost of land.
Speaker 3: And I've done that for every one of the seventy
Speaker 3: seven clients and alysity today that industrial commercial clients, and
Speaker 3: it holds and so, yeah, is it cheaper to fly
Speaker 3: if you need something and you want to get the
Speaker 3: more valuable one on.
Speaker 2: A four hour flight versus the two hour flight.
Speaker 3: The four hour flights maybe more expensive than the two
Speaker 3: hour flight, but the value of what you pick when
Speaker 3: you learn four hours later is greater than the two hours.
Speaker 2: And so you know, of course we cannot provide this
Speaker 2: for free. I wish we could, but but you know.
Speaker 1: Come out and see us, come on what's the what's
Speaker 1: the website again? If you don't mind, just for folks
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 3: Sure, So what I encourage everybody to do is check
Speaker 3: out two different websites. I want you to just because
Speaker 3: it's important to know the people behind the business. I
Speaker 3: want you to check out re endeavored dot com. That's
Speaker 3: the shareholder of a Laro City. It also will give
Speaker 3: you the the other seven industrial hubs we have and
Speaker 3: private cities we have across Africa with Enya where in
Speaker 3: Dr Congo, We're in Zambia, We're in Ghana, in Akran,
Speaker 3: in Takarate and with Nigeria in Legos Alaro City.
Speaker 2: And we have something up and coming in a future.
Speaker 3: But the website for Larcity simply a Larocity dot com
Speaker 3: www dot Larocity dot com A L A R.
Speaker 2: O C I T Y dot com.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. So I've got my co host Olumide. He's he's
Speaker 1: in the Nigerinant Captol market space also writes a lot
Speaker 1: of articles abroad because the co host is able to
Speaker 1: hop in here. Olim Day, I'm not sure when you joined,
Speaker 1: you've got the invite, But I've been learning about Alaro,
Speaker 1: learned about infrastructure in Nigeria set up plugging and play
Speaker 1: great p PP investment that is here in Nigeria. Esset
Speaker 1: to dive asify not just economy of Legos, Nigeria, West Africa.
Speaker 1: We're building something here and folks are coming in and
Speaker 1: if you had in the comments on what you've heard
Speaker 1: and what you think she reach, we just go and
Speaker 1: quote these guys in the stock market and double niger
Speaker 1: stock market in one full Suppose you take Limdi.
Speaker 4: Yeah, cal I actually joined in late, but I pretty
Speaker 4: want to be more like a new v here because
Speaker 4: it's not reading. My quest part is rest infrastructure. But
Speaker 4: there are three questions I want to ask the speaker
Speaker 4: the guest speaker. The first one, who are your target audience?
Speaker 4: Are you looking at the upper class? You're looking at investors?
Speaker 4: Are you looking at Jos and daspora? Secondly, current SERIESK
Speaker 4: how do you do returns from your previews your past performers?
Speaker 2: Has return being? Then?
Speaker 4: Lastly, how we should we be concerned about the potical climate?
Speaker 4: We have a new presidence in the world. Was pererfult
Speaker 4: economy as kickness here? Are you seeing any impact? These
Speaker 4: are things that so like means interested in interesting?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean i'd have to make it about the
Speaker 1: American elections in America and you mentioned mister I go
Speaker 1: as due to expire blieve ten twenty five. Just blend
Speaker 1: that all in the what's your takes?
Speaker 3: So thank you Carlo, Thank you do miday. I think
Speaker 3: the first question was on our target audience. You know,
Speaker 3: earlier in the call, I mentioned that we serve as
Speaker 3: a platform to attract FDI. So we want to find
Speaker 3: director investment and we are jurisdiction at Gnostic.
Speaker 2: We want everybody to come in.
Speaker 3: We want them to bring their technology, money, create jobs
Speaker 3: and to bring products and services and know how closer
Speaker 3: to the Nigerian market to make us more self sufficient
Speaker 3: and resilient. Right in addition to that, we want every
Speaker 3: type of Nigerian investor. We have an sme on claim
Speaker 3: I mentioned earlier. I believe we are still the only
Speaker 3: PHRAE zone in Nigeria in the history of Nigeria have
Speaker 3: bit dedicated sme on claim and I mentioned majority of jobs,
Speaker 3: majority of them even to personal companies. Our SMEs and
Speaker 3: so SMEs should benefit from these incentives and they should
Speaker 3: be able to more efficiently export, They should be able
Speaker 3: to more efficiently import into the country to trade and
Speaker 3: or to assemble a manufacturer to service other countries. So
Speaker 3: we are for SMEs. Now, when we talk about housing,
Speaker 3: as you can imagine, a lot of the demand from
Speaker 3: the housing is from the employment that is created in
Speaker 3: and around the free zone. And so we have various
Speaker 3: cares of housing. We have low density, high density, medium density.
Speaker 3: We have apartments where people can share, We have apartments
Speaker 3: for individuals.
Speaker 2: We have stuff that is more intludent housing.
Speaker 3: And then when we look at the people that we
Speaker 3: expect to come in, a lot of city is a
Speaker 3: city a community.
Speaker 2: That is going to be anchored.
Speaker 3: It is already anchored and increasingly will be anchored around arts, entertainment, sports, recreation.
Speaker 3: And so we have a sustainable sustendability pillar. We have
Speaker 3: fifteen percent of the project as designated for green and
Speaker 3: open spaces. We want people to be relaxed. We have sidewalks,
Speaker 3: we have cycling leans. We want people residents, we want
Speaker 3: people customers. We want people guests to come in to
Speaker 3: benefit and enjoy at a lot of city, to watch sports,
Speaker 3: to watch art, to watch entertainment, to come in and visit,
Speaker 3: people to come in and live. And so you have
Speaker 3: to have the mindset that this is for everybody, right
Speaker 3: and you have to develop and plan in a way
Speaker 3: that it is for everybody. When we talk about currencyies,
Speaker 3: like most free zones around the world, the operating currency
Speaker 3: in the Nigeria Free Zone regime is United States dollar,
Speaker 3: but for very practical reasons.
Speaker 2: We transact in Nira. So we toalkedally about looking for
Speaker 2: dollar to go upload.
Speaker 3: And buy something. You can buy in Nira from Nigerian
Speaker 3: free zones, right. But because the operational currency is dollar,
Speaker 3: and because the free zone enterprises Nigeria by law regulation
Speaker 3: are prohibited from access in CBN, they are free to
Speaker 3: transact internationally and domestically in the open market right outside
Speaker 3: of the official channels, and so you can convert money,
Speaker 3: you can manage from a treasury function, your currency risk,
Speaker 3: you can easily repatriate capital as a foreign or as
Speaker 3: a domestic investor.
Speaker 2: Who has presence outside.
Speaker 3: And so movement of money and managing currency ries sincerely
Speaker 3: is linked to the operational currency of the fusal United
Speaker 3: States dollars. When you talk about the political climate in
Speaker 3: the US, it's very new, it's very and it's not
Speaker 3: within our control as Nigerians and people outside of the States.
Speaker 3: All indicators suggest that there's going to be some disruption
Speaker 3: with China, it might extend to Mexico, Vietnam from what
Speaker 3: we're hearing. Interestingly, these are places, these are jurisdictions that
Speaker 3: a lot of international investors are looking at pivoting away from,
Speaker 3: or even companies in those countries are looking at expansion
Speaker 3: to pivot away from their home jurisdiction. You will see
Speaker 3: there's a trend, for instance, more Chinese companies than others
Speaker 3: looking to set up in Africa for access to raw materials,
Speaker 3: lower and lower constant labor right and access to markets
Speaker 3: that maybe they will not have access to giving trade issues,
Speaker 3: and so the way I see it for Africa and
Speaker 3: Nigeria and Nigerian free zones, I think that there's going
Speaker 3: to be an opportunity for Nigerian business or Nigerian environment
Speaker 3: to benefit from an increase in investment and business interest.
Speaker 2: From around the world.
Speaker 3: Giving some of the movements we're seeing, I think our
Speaker 3: GOA is very important. I think i go is very
Speaker 3: important because that proferential access to the US market is
Speaker 3: actually potentially going to be one of the drivers for
Speaker 3: people to come and set up a platform foreign direct
Speaker 3: investment in Nigeria with the sole or primary.
Speaker 2: Purpose of access in the US or Europe.
Speaker 3: But when we talk about other shifts, what I think
Speaker 3: we need to be very open about and proactive about it.
Speaker 3: I spoke about business process ousource and I talked about
Speaker 3: outsourced to Nigeria initiative. When we look at again the
Speaker 3: BPO sector, business process a source, when you look at
Speaker 3: cost of labor, when you look at English as the
Speaker 3: language of administration and a good accent that is internationally understood.
Speaker 3: When you look at the feedback, particularly the customer service
Speaker 3: from call centers, the feedback on the customer service representatives
Speaker 3: who are based in Africa, the empathy levels, the ability
Speaker 3: to connect and empathize and manage clients, they get some
Speaker 3: of the highest ratings. So when we see reduced costs,
Speaker 3: with a good enable environment, infrastructure, utilities, icity, power, a
Speaker 3: young population, dynamic ambitions speaks the language of international business English.
Speaker 3: It is only natural that the continuous movement you see
Speaker 3: how in BPO sector from major Western economies to India
Speaker 3: to other places Vietnam and Bangladesh, it is only natural
Speaker 3: that we are starting to see an increase in those
Speaker 3: companies setting up in Africa and I applaud the government
Speaker 3: alsours the NAGERA initiative.
Speaker 2: We need to be deliberate.
Speaker 3: The PPO industry is the eight point seven eight trillion
Speaker 3: dollar industry. Niger needs to have a big slip the
Speaker 3: way we knew India to be dominant in the BP
Speaker 3: of space. When you call from a credit card company,
Speaker 3: from an airline, you hear somebody. You suspect that India
Speaker 3: that needs to not become Nigeria because the costest is
Speaker 3: good here. We have the regime that allows for profitable engagement, right,
Speaker 3: and so we need to attract like everybody else. We
Speaker 3: must be deliberate and intention and attract that investment here.
Speaker 3: We will create tens of thousands and then hundreds of
Speaker 3: thousands of jobs. And these are well paying jobs and
Speaker 3: therefore young people. You know how demographic is young. It's
Speaker 3: a large but a young population. These are jobs for
Speaker 3: young people.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. So I've got a DM for you, right, film
Speaker 1: there has a full ADM for you. A guy is saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: I live and work here. My colleagues share the space
Speaker 1: with me, and he's right, I'm just trying to read it.
Speaker 1: I live and work here.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: It's very safe. I can work out any time I want,
Speaker 1: and it's very it's very sunny. The only thing I
Speaker 1: want is they could have a place where we could
Speaker 1: go and eat local food, like a restaurant or a
Speaker 1: food court or somewhere that we can just go out
Speaker 1: and meet other people that live in the city. But overall,
Speaker 1: it's very safe and it's good. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a Nigerian guy, right, So it's actually saying he likes
Speaker 1: the whole setup, it's very safe, good infra structure, but
Speaker 1: he wants me be food court or like more entertainment
Speaker 1: where he can go and meet other people. That's what
Speaker 1: I hear him saying, thank you for that.
Speaker 2: I think it's a great piece of feedback.
Speaker 3: We have a deep commitment to being client centric and
Speaker 3: to serving our customers, and.
Speaker 2: It's because of feedback like that that we've been hearing
Speaker 2: that we have recently approved you know, three different restaurants.
Speaker 2: Spaces are being built. We have you know, recreation sport activity.
Speaker 3: We have paddle courts, we have basketball, we have five
Speaker 3: a side football swimming pool, all of which have been
Speaker 3: approved and we've gone to ground and we have a
Speaker 3: gym that's been built there for people to meet, for
Speaker 3: people to exercise, for people to improve the quality of life.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, we have cycling lanes and sidewalks, so
Speaker 3: we have working clubs, talgging clubs, cycling clubs already springing up.
Speaker 3: And the most important thing to mention is that you
Speaker 3: know there's a sequence to these things. To build a
Speaker 3: nicest state in the middle of nowhere is achievable, and
Speaker 3: to make also achievable. But if you want to build
Speaker 3: a city, which is what we are doing, you need
Speaker 3: an economic pulse or heartbeat, and.
Speaker 2: So actually deliberately do what it's been about five years now.
Speaker 2: We had to go all over the world.
Speaker 3: This year, I've been to China, Fait every year, We're
Speaker 3: all over the place trying to bring business to Niger.
Speaker 3: And what we have to bring the investors who will
Speaker 3: bring the employment and when the employers are there, then
Speaker 3: what we need to do. We need to bring the
Speaker 3: housing so that people have a place to say and
Speaker 3: with tapping and reduce that housing deficit and then people
Speaker 3: are living there. We need a place for people to
Speaker 3: go when they don't feel well. The healthcare which is
Speaker 3: on the horizon, very active discussions, watch.
Speaker 2: That space, and then we need a place for people's
Speaker 2: children to go to school.
Speaker 3: Then build it us all tomorrow and watch that space
Speaker 3: is becoming. And then we need a place for people
Speaker 3: to socialize, people to shop, people to eat. And so
Speaker 3: these are the projects that we are focusing on now.
Speaker 3: And the person who said the dam should watch that
Speaker 3: space out of them and they should watch that space.
Speaker 1: Gotcha?
Speaker 2: And I just want to go ahead, Yeah, I have
Speaker 2: interesting disposition.
Speaker 4: Well the guest is actually brilliant, but I like his
Speaker 4: presentation and it seems to nows onions.
Speaker 2: But you know, I just want to ask two questions
Speaker 2: and I want.
Speaker 4: You to be a bit simple, because we need to
Speaker 4: understand that our space financial induices actually grew.
Speaker 2: So the concern for risk, like risk, how safe? What
Speaker 2: are the risk? You know, we want to alot. I
Speaker 2: just want to know that.
Speaker 4: Then how you need to cand be involved? You know,
Speaker 4: how need to can someone be take part? Because we
Speaker 4: need to understand food inflation.
Speaker 2: Is three yeah, three decades. The standard of living is
Speaker 2: that one of the worst.
Speaker 4: Points there ever disposably come very weak denied valuation has
Speaker 4: the is the power of so for people that are interested.
Speaker 4: This is because a lot of people you know who
Speaker 4: want to get in. But we're looking at this multi
Speaker 4: heavy doing. Can their paying plans? Are their strategies in
Speaker 4: which do income living containers can take part of its?
Speaker 4: Most importantly, you know, we want to know how safe.
Speaker 4: You know, we've had a lot of beyond people. The
Speaker 4: one problem we have.
Speaker 2: Businesses and the enjoys continuity.
Speaker 4: So a lot of people who want to ask you,
Speaker 4: what are the text to show that the business will
Speaker 4: stand the test of time, just like our jam box.
Speaker 1: Let me do your question. Let me see and if
Speaker 1: you're here from the beginning, bullet go ahead, sir.
Speaker 2: Yes, I just wanted to take that first one. I
Speaker 2: missed it.
Speaker 3: I got the second one about getting involved, how to
Speaker 3: get involved?
Speaker 2: The first question I had risk but I and then
Speaker 2: how safe? I just want to confirm. I'll be talking
Speaker 2: about physical safety, talking.
Speaker 4: About the safety the flacial commitment, the safety of facial commitments.
Speaker 3: So got it, but a hundre persent, understand, let me
Speaker 3: take that first. So you see the reason I gave
Speaker 3: two websites when I hope they was on. Then I
Speaker 3: was asked to provide the website for Alar City and
Speaker 3: rather provided two websites Rendeva dot Com, r E N
Speaker 3: D E A V O U R dot com and
Speaker 3: then Alaro City Alaro City A L A R O
Speaker 3: C I T.
Speaker 2: Y dot com.
Speaker 3: The reason I gave the Rendeva is because Rendeva is
Speaker 3: the majority ship in Allaro City.
Speaker 2: Now, for those since.
Speaker 3: There's a Nigerian platform, some of you may recall or
Speaker 3: no an investment bank called Renaissance Capital or rent Car.
Speaker 2: We also know a consumer finance bank called rent Money.
Speaker 2: These are companies that we have founded.
Speaker 3: Right the founder of Rendeva founded Renaissance Capital, founded rent Money,
Speaker 3: founded Rendebt. Now when you look at the rendeable website,
Speaker 3: you will get a sense for the people behind the business.
Speaker 2: They are very successful.
Speaker 3: It's a multinational, multi billion dollar value company that is
Speaker 3: the largest private not using government funds or grants and
Speaker 3: not using debt. We don't have third party debt in
Speaker 3: the business, using share with our funds, long term patient
Speaker 3: capital from very successful, very deeply committed investors to create
Speaker 3: a platform that is today the largest private developer of cities,
Speaker 3: especially economic zones and a and so you know, these
Speaker 3: are people who are very well known in the international
Speaker 3: business community, who have done very well and have other
Speaker 3: businesses that are primary source of wealth and they have
Speaker 3: used that to pursue this very novel platform in focus
Speaker 3: on targeting and.
Speaker 2: Need a demand.
Speaker 3: The Devil is not a sposity launched five years ago,
Speaker 3: but we secured the project Allowacity with the legal State government.
Speaker 3: Out of our seven projects was the seventh or seventh.
Speaker 3: So Rendeva has been around for a while and never
Speaker 3: has completed projects. You can go to Roma Park in
Speaker 3: Zambia and ask about them. We don't have to talk
Speaker 3: too much.
Speaker 2: You can do research. You can see the profile of
Speaker 2: the people.
Speaker 3: But there's completed projects, the substantially advanced projects, and you
Speaker 3: can also come to.
Speaker 2: Allowescity what has been achieved in five years.
Speaker 3: So when you have debt, particularly in Polatary, sometimes you
Speaker 3: end up doing what you have to do to stay
Speaker 3: alive and to pay your lender.
Speaker 2: You make the wrong call. We don't have that pressure right.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you start a business, you do it once, you
Speaker 3: do twice, then you fall off. Sometimes do it three times,
Speaker 3: four times. We have seven cities of Africa and all
Speaker 3: of them are places you can't see, you can't touch,
Speaker 3: You can't call people to go out and look. You
Speaker 3: can get videos and so you know that is on
Speaker 3: the risk if I got the question now, okay, then
Speaker 3: on how how little one can be involved. Yeah, these
Speaker 3: are big projects. But as I mentioned, this is something
Speaker 3: we are doing to accommodate SME. This is something we
Speaker 3: are doing to accommodicate employees or companies. And we're also
Speaker 3: creating a platform to allow businesses and investors to set
Speaker 3: up to create employment opportunities for people to come in
Speaker 3: through employment and then to participate and grow in the
Speaker 3: city through that employment and sort of an employment.
Speaker 2: But yes, a lot of.
Speaker 3: City has payment plans. We have very attractive payment plans,
Speaker 3: multi year payment plans. A lot of city is working
Speaker 3: with Tier one banks in Nigeria to provide financing, attractive
Speaker 3: financings that make it easy for the banks to come
Speaker 3: in and to lend both to Nigerians at home and
Speaker 3: in the diaspora. When we look at things like SEME,
Speaker 3: space and tech Analysity is ready to be very intentional
Speaker 3: about attracting and promoting actors in this space right because
Speaker 3: again that is where the majority of the employment is
Speaker 3: and can be including services. And so you know I
Speaker 3: mentioned earlier that this is something it's a piece of
Speaker 3: land that has been privately developed. Everything you see on
Speaker 3: the internet, everything you see when you go in real life,
Speaker 3: every single thing you see, it's probably a.
Speaker 1: Couple of interesting I'm refring to let you go, sir.
Speaker 1: I have a gentleman saying he's from I don't mention
Speaker 1: the state, from a state. He'd like to organize the
Speaker 1: state Chamber of Commers to come over and visit. He
Speaker 1: will write you officially and that he wishes that can
Speaker 1: be approved. He wants to bring in his from the
Speaker 1: state to come and take a tour and to talk
Speaker 1: to you here. I don't really mention, but he'll send
Speaker 1: you a DM if you don't mind.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, that would be great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they want to come tour and see what you're doing.
Speaker 1: There a very important state in Nigeria. Don't want to
Speaker 1: come see what you guys are doing. That's fantastic. Yeah, great, Well,
Speaker 1: well on to all.
Speaker 2: They are most welcome.
Speaker 3: We look forward to hearing from them and maybe if Carlu,
Speaker 3: if you could drop them our email of the organizers
Speaker 3: from our side on this and the reason why I
Speaker 3: alluded earlier that I'm not very tech savy, I have
Speaker 3: loved and created an account for the first time in
Speaker 3: my life.
Speaker 2: My life. I'm on Twitter and so I don't want
Speaker 2: to mess up by missing a DM or something like that.
Speaker 2: If you the email.
Speaker 1: Organizers, yes, I will do that. Like and I you
Speaker 1: I actually coming for an hour. I think you've been
Speaker 1: You've been gradual with your time. Like I said, the
Speaker 1: whole discussion was to bring in Souna is actually doing
Speaker 1: the talk. I tell you that the bulk of the
Speaker 1: d ms are really about wow. Oh really, so one
Speaker 1: is saying we've been hearing a lot of most nationals
Speaker 1: living in Nigeria. I just googled what he said about
Speaker 1: Ariel and it's right there. Ariel is making this art
Speaker 1: in Nigeria from this location that he mentioned. Why has
Speaker 1: no one said this before this space? Why is it
Speaker 1: that no one has talked about all this that the
Speaker 1: man is talking about before this space. Nigeria really needs
Speaker 1: to sell herself. That's from Bollandi. That's not DM here
Speaker 1: saying we need to see pictures of this Calu please
Speaker 1: put off pictures so people are really in I don't
Speaker 1: believe that, you know some Nigeria doesn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of good stories. So when this is the very very
Speaker 1: good story, did this space, and that's the reason why
Speaker 1: you came in, sir, to tell people what is achievably
Speaker 1: in Nigeria. The same policy, same laws, same state government,
Speaker 1: same thing government. If you build it, people will come.
Speaker 1: It's not that impossible really.
Speaker 2: In the end.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to make the you know, wants to do
Speaker 1: commas and I said direct high in with what you're
Speaker 1: doing here with commas, with jobs, with infrastructure, but you're
Speaker 1: talking about SMEs and all that. So it's a win
Speaker 1: win across the board. Even when you go internationally. You've
Speaker 1: mentioned Mexico, China clearly if you full international politics, Nigeria
Speaker 1: and any other location. I'm reading Madagascar, reading all these
Speaker 1: countries that the Chinese are going to go there to
Speaker 1: skirt the tariffs that the US is going to impose
Speaker 1: it no matter how small. So it's a big opportunity
Speaker 1: for Nigeria right now. The Chinese can say, where can
Speaker 1: we go to or go to West Africa. These guys
Speaker 1: are there and we can set up something there in
Speaker 1: Nigeria to export to the Americas even to the EU.
Speaker 1: And you guys are doing it and most people have
Speaker 1: not heard of this at all. And that's the reason
Speaker 1: why you came here just so n I just can
Speaker 1: see that, yes, this is happening, It's not all doomed.
Speaker 1: There's hope for the naira, there's hope for the economy,
Speaker 1: and we just have to get more of this. I
Speaker 1: mean more of this, not just the investment, but more
Speaker 1: of the partnerships, the rule of law, the policies. They
Speaker 1: can't do attitude. If we get more of it in Nigeria,
Speaker 1: then the country diversified, then stronger, more people I employed.
Speaker 1: That's really the whole point. And I thank you for
Speaker 1: I'm going to come and speak so openly. Like you said,
Speaker 1: you have to become text savvy to come on the space.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, sir, So thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being with us. If you have any remarks the closer,
Speaker 1: we would love to hear.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Carlo, I just want to again say thank you so
Speaker 3: much for having me. I heard in the context of
Speaker 3: setting this up so many great things about the show
Speaker 3: you and I am clear now that I have reliable
Speaker 3: sources around me, and so I just want to say
Speaker 3: that this kind of platform is so important. I wish
Speaker 3: you every success and I thank you for the opportunity
Speaker 3: I did that there were over two hundred people join.
Speaker 2: We know that your time is valuable. I thank you
Speaker 2: for listening.
Speaker 3: We referenced earlier about telling our stories. We need to
Speaker 3: tell our stories. And the truth is we are here,
Speaker 3: as Carlo said, in order to story, and we need
Speaker 3: to do more and be more proactive and intentional the
Speaker 3: story of the Nigerian opportunity. Indeed, there are challenges and
Speaker 3: indeed we're going through an interesting time, but we are
Speaker 3: resilient people. We are a large economy with a lot
Speaker 3: of potential, and I just want to encourage everybody to
Speaker 3: be in the arena. We can comment, we can critique,
Speaker 3: we can advise, but aquires us to be in the arena.
Speaker 3: When we think about what prior regions have gone through
Speaker 3: during World wars, when countries were broken and rebuilt, When
Speaker 3: we look at the China experience, when we look at
Speaker 3: what India has gone through from worrying about how to
Speaker 3: feed its people becoming you know, on the brink of
Speaker 3: a superpower, superpower, and how you you you describe it.
Speaker 3: I've just mentioned China and I've just mentioned and in
Speaker 3: twenty fifty Chapa and nigip the three largest populations in
Speaker 3: the world. What are we doing today to make sure
Speaker 3: that come twenty to fifty we have a much better
Speaker 3: started of living, a much better a much more diversive
Speaker 3: on an argum bidle class. How do we ensure political
Speaker 3: as social stability by joining employment levels are where they
Speaker 3: need to be. We can't just sit and wait, and
Speaker 3: we can't just pray.
Speaker 2: We must act.
Speaker 3: We must be in the arena, courage everybody that the
Speaker 3: privacycle has a big role to play, Government has a
Speaker 3: big role to play, but we need to place that
Speaker 3: in today.
Speaker 2: And so again I thank you for the time, and
Speaker 2: I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that. Thanks so much, guys. Again, it was going
Speaker 1: to be a shot. We normally were here for about
Speaker 1: three hours or so, you guys know, but I just felt, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have a guest. He might not have that bandwidth
Speaker 1: to spend. But I think we've gotten the point right,
Speaker 1: and I think everyone's going to be twitting and googling
Speaker 1: a Larro city to see what's going on there. Again,
Speaker 1: the point is we always say we do the spaces
Speaker 1: to talk to your personal wallet. And you've heard him
Speaker 1: talk about SMEs, you've heard him talk about what they
Speaker 1: are doing. So The question for you is how can
Speaker 1: you tap in? If you have a company, tell your
Speaker 1: boss look at this. Let's look take a look at
Speaker 1: this place and see if we're going to go set
Speaker 1: up a store here. If you have a PvP that
Speaker 1: you are doing with your own friends, you guys want
Speaker 1: to set up something. Is this a place you guys
Speaker 1: can go set up? Do you think it's going to
Speaker 1: be worldwhile this? To spend money here? Would you guys
Speaker 1: get that return on your investment about he said when
Speaker 1: you set up because of the costs that you don't pay,
Speaker 1: in effect, because you are in a place of got
Speaker 1: to the four seven power security, are able to do
Speaker 1: your job. If you then back out those costs, if
Speaker 1: you do the match, it might be free because you're
Speaker 1: not paying. You're not worrying about those added costs that
Speaker 1: you would get if you were, say outside the free
Speaker 1: trade zone. So there's a lot going on here that
Speaker 1: if you can't do copy, if you can't copy, propagate,
Speaker 1: tell the good stuff about it, because I think it's
Speaker 1: just wonderful that we're doing this. If your state has
Speaker 1: got the money, they don't have to have a port,
Speaker 1: but they can also do exactly what's going on here,
Speaker 1: create a free trade zon, you know, allow the privacy
Speaker 1: to come in to build investments. Don't be too want
Speaker 1: to go tax them, import export, low taxes, bringing the
Speaker 1: foreign folks in there, and then around that commer you
Speaker 1: would basically get what's gonna be to the state, to
Speaker 1: you to look at ben, to the federal and everyone
Speaker 1: is basically going to say this was a good deal.
Speaker 1: I like it and I've learned a lot today. Once
Speaker 1: the space goes down, I'm gonna go in and Google
Speaker 1: and do a lot more, and we're gonna bring in
Speaker 1: more guys that can talk to us like this. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate mister Dyoluke coming in to talk to us
Speaker 1: about the city and what they are doing in Nigeria.
Speaker 1: Very very appreciative. Sorry, guys, weren't able to get most
Speaker 1: of you to speak, but I to get the DMS
Speaker 1: and I think it's all the same comments. We're all
Speaker 1: here to learn. I think we'll lend a lot today,
Speaker 1: So appreciate you guys. All right, thank you, so folks.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys next week. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: here next week. Either we're gonna be talking about the
Speaker 1: V A T or we're gonna be talking about the
Speaker 1: tax policies, but we're gonna have We're gonna have discussion
Speaker 1: around one more economic topic as a year whin it's
Speaker 1: down lots happening in Nigeria as we say, and I
Speaker 1: think if we're were to get the policy about what
Speaker 1: we see this, the issue in Nigeria is not the tactics,
Speaker 1: it's the strategy, the policies, the building blocks. Once we
Speaker 1: can correct how the country is structured, the countries animal
Speaker 1: spirits will automatically create wealth. Right now, Nigeria's animal spirits
Speaker 1: can create weld because of the structure the way the
Speaker 1: country is structured. If we can redirect and mix, like
Speaker 1: the river, once we can create a pathway for the river,
Speaker 1: it's one stream and it just flows. Right now, we
Speaker 1: have one river that's been broken into one billion pathway,
Speaker 1: so we have the same volume, but God is flowing
Speaker 1: through many many pathways. There's no impact. If we can
Speaker 1: get that river flowing with the force and the impact,
Speaker 1: then it becomes significant all that tributree is coming that
Speaker 1: we have this big flowing river that's going to generate
Speaker 1: weld fish, you know, drinking water for everyone. If you mind,
Speaker 1: my this is not that frame of reference, but as
Speaker 1: the NAIA needs policies, good leadership and then things would
Speaker 1: happen on so so thanks folks, I'll see you guys
Speaker 1: here next week. Thanks for hopping in here, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for doing Thank you Lemine. You guys have
Speaker 1: a good rest of your weekend.
Speaker 2: Then thank you.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, sir,