The South African BRICS Business Council says it will be engaging Nigerian businesses and the private sector players, to expand trade and investment opportunities in Africa.
Chairperson of the council, Ms Busi Mabuza stated this in a virtual interview on Sunday in Abuja.
According her, she will be on a working visit to engage with relevant partners in Nigeria in July.
Mabuza said that Nigeria played a critical role in the continent and had one of the most entrepreneurial cultures and experience in the world.
She said that considering the importance of Nigeria, South Africa was expecting to host a sizeable number of Nigerian delegation to the 2023 BRICS summit scheduled to hold in August, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“My visit to Nigeria on July 4 and July 5 is to meet with business leaders and ask them to join hands with us so that we showcase the best of Africa to the rest of the world.
“And we cannot do that without Nigeria, the business people, from the continent,” she said.
Mabuza lauded Nigeria for thriving in other sectors, even though it was an oil reliant nation.
This, according to her, is one of the success secrets she will love Nigeria to share with other countries of the region.
According to Mabuza, making the agricultural sector attractive, innovative with more incentives, and creating an enabling environment for Small Medium Enterprises will draw the younger generation into harnessing the potentials in the sector.
“So far as agric business is concerned, there are very exciting opportunities across all manner of value chains.
“If we look at the example of India which is very similar in every way to us, technical support to rural based Small and Medium Enterprises is absolutely critical.
“Financial support on its own is not enough for these players, we need to couple it with opening up markets for these players. And that is where the common agro parks are so important.
“Another thing that the small players cannot afford to pay attention to is the agric-technology, because of its cost. So, the lessons are many and the interest is absolutely amazing.
“We saw last year, India announcing a two billion dollars investment in their agroparks because they have the opportunity to actually success going forward.
“And we believe that as an African continent, we are going to be attracting the investments if we are able to implement of this,” Mabuza said.
Responding to questions on Nigeria joining the BRICS nation, Mabuza said that it would be exciting.
She noted that there were engagements, as quite a number of countries had knocked off the doors of the BRICS formation, to seek membership and expansion.
“Nigeria is an important, critical anchor to the African countries, so I will be delighted if Nigeria were to join as soon as possible, if the membership is expanded,” she said.
Also speaking in the expectations from the new administration in Nigeria, which focused on improving the economy, Mabuza noted that there were expectations of an exploding growth rate, as was in the case of India, when she had her reforms.
Looking at the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war on the globe, Mabuza said it was time for Africa to walk away from its over dependency on other nations and be self-reliant.
The BRICS Business Council was established during the 2013 BRICS Summit.
The Council comprises of 25 prominent entrepreneurs drawn from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, representing different industries and sectors in BRICS member countries.
It meets twice a year, and the final report is presented to BRICS leaders at the Summit.
