Awaiting Belgian ‘invasion’ in Abuja

And Nigerian being part of the global community is not an exception. That explains why several of Nigerian public officials continue to hop from capital city of the world to another in a quest to attract foreign investors to the country with a view to fast-tracking the nation’s development.The quest to attract foreign investment to […]

And Nigerian being part of the global community is not an exception. That explains why several of Nigerian public officials continue to hop from capital city of the world to another in a quest to attract foreign investors to the country with a view to fast-tracking the nation’s development.
The quest to attract foreign investment to the nation’s capital city of Abuja reverberated recently when the FCT administration played host to Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Dirk Verheyen in Abuja to discuss modalities for the visit of a 60-man Belgian trade mission to Nigeria last week.
According to the ambassador, out of the 60 Belgian companies that will be coming to Nigeria as part of the trade mission, 15 of them have interest in Abuja, especially in health, transportation and construction sectors of the economy.
As expectations continue to heighten about the expected benefits from the expertise of the Belgian investors, the point must be stressed here that they will only be coming to build on what the FCT Administration has achieved in those targeted areas of the economy. For instance, in the area of health, while universal health care is a comprehensive health insurance program that many countries have adopted and in which government plays a major role in regulating, Belgium offers both universal and private health care coverage. The health care system in Belgium is organized through private sickness funds. According to the World Health Organization, Belgium spent 10.6 percent of its GDP on health care in 2011. Like many countries, medical treatment in Belgium is divided into private or universal. You are given the benefit of choosing a physician or hospital at your preferred location.
The result was that as at 2012, FCT was leading other states of the federation in the implementation of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4,5,6 ahead of the 2015 target. So, a strong synergy with the Belgian firms will take health delivery services in the territory to unprecedented heights.
The road network in Belgium is managed by regional authorities, meaning that a road section in Flanders is managed by the Flemish Government, a road section in Brussels by the Brussels government, while the one in Wallonia by the Walloon Government.
No doubt, investment opportunities abound in the nation’s capital city, and as expectations continue to mount about the prospects of investment from the 15 Belgian firms, the economy of the FCT is expected to experience massive turn around in the near future.
For long, Nigeria has continued to reel from the suffocating effects of unemployment, but with the expected ‘invasion’ of the nation’s economy by the Belgian companies, unemployment figure that has been growing at an alarming rate will crash to the benefit and satisfaction of the jobless youths currently roaming the streets.
As a corollary, bursting the unemployment balloon through job creation by the Belgian firms will help in checkmating the rising rate of criminality in the nation’s capital city. From whichever angle it is viewed, the FCT administration with this commendable move has inexorably set Abuja on the path to accelerated development. 
Ochela wrote in from Abuja