Italy is hosting the world at the Milan Expo 2015. What is the Expo about?
It is a universal exposition which is hosted by Italy from May 1 to October 31 2015. This is also the most important event which has ever been realised in the field of food and nutrition from the greatest techniques and scientific innovations concerning the food sector.
For the six months period of the exposition, Milan is at the centre of the global stage and all the countries which are participants will show their technologies and their capabilities to give concrete answers to the need of all countries to have food of high quality and food security enough for everybody with respect to the equilibrium of the planet.
There are 140 countries and organisations participating in the event. We expect that by the end of the exposition in October, more than 20 million visitors will attend.
What is the level of Nigeria’s participation at the Expo?
All countries are invited to this event and we are inviting Nigeria also as our friend to the expo. Nigeria is one of the major economies of the continent. It is one of the fastest growing and it is strategic for not only Italy but also for most other countries in the world. We believe that Nigeria has enormous capabilities in the field of agriculture. Agriculture is something which is very important for Nigeria. I think it is the second source of income after oil and gas and I think it employs a lot of people because I understand that about 70 percent of people find work in agriculture.
We believe that you will be successful and in the next three to four years, we believe that it is possible Nigeria becomes a major producer of some agricultural products, for example rice.
Whatever you want to achieve you can because you have a very gigantic country, more than three times the size of Italy and with a population of over 170 million.
It is a gigantic market and projections are that in 2050, this market will grow to 450 million persons which is a huge opportunity for all parts of the world. Just to give you an idea of the potential, in Italy, our crops are harvested once a year but in Nigeria you can harvest two to three times a year. Your potential is just like someone who has a golden mine in front of him and just needs to start working on it.
If you invest in this sector and if you make the right investment legislation, there is no doubt that from our point of view, we believe that Nigeria will be a leader in a lot of sectors.
Are some of these Italian companies working in Nigeria?
There are some but they are not enough. Until now we find imported products in Nigeria. But I think it is very important to adopt legislations to make investments easier. What is important is that we have interest and we are pushing our companies not only to sell tractors for example, we believe it is very important in the medium term to produce in Nigeria because you have a gigantic market which is growing fast.
This makes Nigeria very interesting for foreign companies and what is important of course is to attract companies to come here. Of course you need to adopt legislations which have been done already partially. The legislation will attract investments. Italian companies are attracted to Nigeria because it is big business. Nigeria is perceived in Italy as a potentially gigantic and very rich market. Nigerians are somehow the Italians of Africa and if you prefer the opposite way, Italians are the Nigerians of Europe.
All the prospects of cooperation are there and that is the reason we really hope that Nigerian companies will take advantage of the possibility to go to Milano Expo 2015 and make business to business transactions.
We are of course waiting for the new ministers to be appointed and then also we will ask the Nigerian side to come and organise a presentation in Milan and in Rome because a lot of companies are interested in Nigeria but then they need to listen from your lips.
I am a good ambassador of Nigeria and I will facilitate it but you people have to come and explain to the rest of the world.
When I was nominated ambassador to Nigeria, we had a meeting with all ambassadors before leaving for our assigned countries; we organised a meeting with Italian companies but we had a big problem, for those interested in Nigeria, we had to shift the meeting three times due to space constraints. For instance every time we planned for let’s say 30 companies, in less than 24 hours even with little publicity because I had to move fast to Nigeria, we had 50 companies interested and then it became over 100. This is the country where we have by far the highest number of interest. There is plenty of interest in Nigeria, everybody is interested.
What is the estimated trade volume between Nigeria and Italy?
The trade volume basically is around $3 billion a year. About $2 billion is in oil and gas then the rest is divided between other imports we have from Nigeria like leather. We have a lot of Italian companies which have been here for two or three generations. There are more than 60 Italian companies and most of them are into construction and they are very successful. And I tell you, after two generations, Italians here, most of them are also Nigerians and they have Nigerian passports. They are very proud of it and when they come to Italy, they tell me ‘Ambassador, I am Italian but I am also Nigerian proudly with a Nigeria passport.’ I also try to remind them that the most important Nigerian community in continental Europe is in Italy. We have up to 160,000 Nigerians in Italy which means it is a very big community and most of them are integrated into the societies. There are those that are second to third generation.
How stringent is visa issuance at the Italian embassy?
We have greatly improved the waiting period of our visa. Italy is one of the countries that offer within a very short period the Schengen visa and we have issued around 10,000 last year. This is to tell you that people are very interested to go to Italy and we are very happy to receive them and of course businessmen going to Milan Expo 2015, we will facilitate visas to them as much as possible. The reality is that the more Nigeria gets close to the international system, the more it attracts foreign investment and everybody is happy.
What category of visa got highest allocation?
To my knowledge business category got highest and then tourism. For those rejected, I don’t know the right figures. But I want to emphasise the point that everyone who has complete documents will be issued. To us, we have an interest to make the fold bigger and bigger. We have no reason to say no to visitors, our economical interest, national interest is to boost interactions not to stop interactions. I am not here to stop the visas, my duty is to go ahead with the visas. Ofcourse, we have regulations, the Schengen regulations which regulate Schengen visas. We want Nigerians to double the number, we want more and more Nigerians to come to Italy. We are asking for the standard procedures to be followed, if you have all these, there is no good reason to tell you no. we are not paying all the staff we have in Lagos to say ‘no’; it will be easier and less expensive to leave them at home. The idea is to help, not to stop.
