Hajiya Aisha Abubakar, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, has called on Nokia to set up a plant in the country to boost employment.
Abubakar made the appeal when Richard Edet, the Nokia Managing Director, Nigeria Customer Operations, paid her a courtesy call in Abuja on Thursday.
She said Nigerian youths were good in the area of Information and Communication Technology and would do well in such area.
She said: “I don’t see why Nigeria cannot have a Nokia of its own.
“We cannot continue to rely on having names that we imbibe.
“Let others also imbibe ours.
“You know when we talk of diversification, we cannot do this without technology.
“So we need to partner with you to identify more areas of partnership.”
According to Abubakar, the country has a population of almost 70 million people who are unemployed and lot of them are youths and women.
Abubakar said the ministry would partner with the Nokia Company to set up ICT hops in the country.
She said: “I am thinking can we partner to set up ICT hubs around the country.
“Nokia is domiciled in Lagos alone and it’s not enough so we need more strength to reach all Nigerians.”
She urged the company to improve on its social responsibilities and capacity building.
In his speech, Edet said Nokia currently employed 400 people and 98 per cent were Nigerians.
He said Nokia was one of the top three providers in terms of telecom services and had been in Nigeria for quite number of years.
Edet said the visit was to seek for partnership with the Federal Government through the office of the minister.
He promised that the number would triple in due time.
He said: “We seek your support directly or indirectly and we give you our commitment that the quality we give globally is what you will also get here without any compromise.”
On the issue of Nokia plant in Nigeria, Edet said it was not something that would happen overnight, adding that the government needed to put in place the right infrastructure.
He said: “This is because when you have a plant, you need to think of how to stay competitive price-wise.
“It is one thing to have the population, but it is another thing to have the right infrastructure.
“As the government works on improving power and roads in the nearest future, many global companies will be looking at setting up their plants here if the dynamic makes sense.”
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