Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite (file photo)
‘We need you to come together, and galvanize yourselves as a community. We have trade desks in embassies and missions around the world’
By Valentine Amanze
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, has assured Nigerian businessmen in India that the federal government was behind them in their challenges.
The minister gave the assurance during an interactive session with the Nigerian community in New Delhi, India, on September 7, 2023.
At the meeting were President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; the governors of Kwara and Ogun states, the ministers of Foreign Affairs; Finance; Budget and Economic Planning; Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; the Nigerian High Commissioner to India, and other senior government officials.
Uzoka-Anite further appealed to the business community to be united, while urging them to always liaise with Nigeria’s embassies and trade missions in time of challenges.
Her words: “We need you to come together, and galvanize yourselves as a community. We have trade desks in embassies and missions around the world. Once you’re able to fully articulate your demands, we can table them before Mr. President, and also include them in our future negotiations with the Indian Government.”
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On what the Federal Government is doing to tackle outbound medical tourism to India, Anite-Uzoka said that she held meetings with Indian healthcare institutions, stressing that they were looking at setting up hospitals and other medical facilities in Nigeria.
“I extracted a number of commitments from healthcare organizations in India, who will be setting up in Nigeria,” Uzoka-Anite said.
Among the Indian healthcare investors looking to invest or expand in Nigeria, according to her, include an Indian medical university that would be partnering with a Nigerian university to deliver medical education in Nigeria, and another firm that has expressed readiness to establish a school for nursing and paramedical personnel, as well as a chain of general hospitals in the country.
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