As the federal government works towards attracting investments through its ease of doing business initiatives, the Consul General, German Consulate General in Lagos, Ingo Herbert, has said trust and image present the main challenge in foreign direct investment partnerships.
Herbert spoke at the launch of the German Desk Nigeria, a bilateral partnership between Access Bank and DEG.
He stated that German businesses coming into Nigeria needed to have local partners.
He noted that “the main challenge is having to find the right partner for German businesses. There is the matter of trust and image and this is something that needs to be worked on.”
Herbert however noted that the partnership between Access Bank and Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) opened up opportunities of partnerships between Nigerian and German businesses.
According to him, only two per cent of German exports came into sub Sahara Africa in 2016, a figure he said the German hoped would change as investments into Nigeria increases with the advent of the German Desk Nigeria.
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The German Desk is a partnership for financial solutions among Access Bank, Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria and DEG, a subsidiary of German bank KFW Group which is 80 per cent owned by the government with an asset base of over €500 billion.
On his part, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, noted that the partnership with DEG provided a platform for the bank in its efforts at rewriting the narrative of the Nigerian business environment.
He noted that the partnership would see the DEG play the role of financial intermediation and advisory role, handhold in Nigerian companies looking to do business in Germany and German buinsesses interested in coming into Nigeria.
Wigwe noted that the launch of the German Desk was crucial at that time in the history of Nigeria as the country exited recession.
He added that the partnership would provide insights “as to how to do business in both countries.”
