Belgium’s Antwerp Port Authority President, Marc Van-Peel, has revealed that more than 60 Belgian construction companies are looking for investment opportunities in Nigeria’s road sector.
Van-Peel led a delegation of officials of some Belgian construction companies on a courtesy visit to the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen and said that six construction companies in Belgium were interested in investing in Nigeria’s road sector.
“We are coming from Belgium, and here we are, a delegation of business people – more than 60 of them here at the Ministry of Works; we have six companies in construction engineering, et cetera. The delegation is a much diversified delegation of 60 business people in all sectors of the economy.”We have good contact with private companies in Nigeria but also with the authorities, in the hope of doing good business here in Nigeria,” he said, noting that Nigeria has huge opportunities for investors and that Belgium would be glad to partake in them.
The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammad, applauded the desire of the Belgian companies to invest in Nigeria. He explained that the ministry had the mandate to provide infrastructure such as roads and bridges for Nigerians.
The minister said the expression of interest by the Belgian companies was coming at a time Nigeria has a quest for development.
“We are trying to do our best to provide those aspects that will entice investors to come to Nigeria; and good roads are one of the infrastructures that investors will be interested in providing.
“This government is into providing good road infrastructure for this country because we know the importance of good roads to the economy of any nation and the areas where we think investors can come in are the roads and bridges,” the minister said, noting that many of the ministry’s projects had been awarded under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, alluding to the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan expressway projects.
