Buhari: GE is investing $2.2bn in Nigeria. GE: We are investing $150m in Nigeria
Barely 48 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari declared that General Electric would invest $2.2 billion in the country’s railway transportation sector, the Boston, Massachusetts-headquartered conglomerate countered by saying it would invest just $150 million in the Nigerian economy in 2017.
President Buhari in his speech on October 1, 2016, marking the 56th independence anniversary of the country that was the largest economy in Africa just over a year ago, but which slipped into recession for the first time in 20 years, announced:
“On railways, we have provided our counterpart funding to China for the building of our standard gauge Lagos -Kano railway. Meanwhile, General Electric is investing two point two billion USD in a concession to revamp, provide rolling stock, and manage the existing lines, including the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Line. The Lagos-Calabar railway will also be on stream soon.”
But speaking on Monday, October 3, 2016, a senior executive of GE said the company plans to invest around $150 million in Nigeria by 2017, which represents just about 7% of the $2.2 billion announced by President Buhari.
“There are development projects where we are investing,” Jay Ireland, chief executive of General Electric in Africa told the FT Africa Summit in London. GE would also invest in oil and gas industry projects.
Growth in Nigeria – an OPEC member whose economy, the largest in Africa, is in recession for the first time in more than 20 years due to low oil prices – has been stunted for decades by a lack of investment in its road and rail network.
Ireland said the Nigeria investment was part of a plan to spend $2 billion in Africa in coming years.
The $150 million Nigerian investment falls far short of the $2.2 billion sum Nigeria’s government, as announced by President Buhari, has said GE would invest.
The GE Africa CEO’s comments are weighty and influential. His full names are James William Ireland, III, but he is addressed simply as Jay; he’s been the Chief Executive Officer and President of GE Africa at General Electric Company since March 2011.
Mr. Ireland served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of GE Asset Management at General Electric Co. from June 2007 to 2011. He served as the President of NBC Universal Television Stations & Network Operations at NBC Universal Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Co. from December 2006 to June 2007.
Instructively, in 2014, the GE Africa CEO was named Chair of President Barak Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa, thus one of the 15 private sector leaders named to President Obama’s PAC-DBIA.
Jay Ireland was recently appointed chair of the Advisory Council by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. The appointment was announced during the second U.S.-Africa Business Forum held on 21st of September that year in New York.