‘Africa’s untapped resources can turn around its economy’

By Sulaimon Salau

 Amy Jadesimi. Photo: TWITTER/LADOLFREEZONE

Nigeria and other African countries, boast of untapped resources and business opportunities that can yield huge returns and fully impact the nation’s economy, Managing Director of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic Base, (LADOL), Dr Amy Jadesimi, has said.
 
Speaking at the OECD Africa Forum, Jadesimi noted that countries like Nigeria are full of untapped, easily addressable business opportunities, where new businesses can create new low cost, high return through innovation and value-added solutions for the local market.
 
She argued that companies of the future and those that will be the most profitable are ones that are sustainable, adding that those that fail to embrace sustainability may soon become unviable.
  
Jadesimi noted that LADOL’s success has proven the efficacy of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as a framework for the development of new businesses and for maximising local content in low-income high growth countries.

She however noted that the road to sustainably industrialise Africa is a long one, but would inevitably lead to peace and prosperity for the continent and the world.
 
“The first step is great international support from governments and investors for indigenous private companies across the continent because these are the companies that will create the jobs. Over time, organisations such as LADOL, which may start supporting commodity-focused industries, will diversify and expand, becoming increasingly sustainable until we reach net-zero,” she said.
 
Jadesimi also urged western countries to better regulate the actions of their companies and institutions in Africa, where many multinationals have been proven to instigate, promote and participate in practices that cause harm to the economies and the citizens in countries across the continent.
 
“In as much as we recognise that the regulatory environment across Africa needs to improve, we should not continue to have conversations about regulation in Africa unless we also discuss how wealthier countries can better use their own laws and regulations to police the activities of their companies and representatives in Africa,” she said.

In addition, she reiterated that financial regulation is long overdue, saying: “we know that there are trillions of dollars currently invested in negative or low yielding assets in only 10 financial markets across the world.