On the sidelines of the 8th edition of the MAKUTANO Forum, a DRC-Nigeria Round Table, placed under the high patronage of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Félix A. Tshisekedi Tshilombo, was organized on Monday, October 31, 2022, in Kinshasa with the theme: "Opportunities and models for the creation of Congolese national champions."

This business meeting, sponsored by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, aimed to boost entrepreneurship and business and facilitate sharing experiences between Congolese businessmen and their Nigerian counterparts. It finally led to the creation of a DRC-Nigeria Business Council whose interim chairmanship was entrusted to Dr. Nteraya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In contrast, the interim vice-chairmanship is held by His Excellency Mr. Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of the Nigerian State of Kaduna.

It is within the framework of the concretization of the commitments made that a delegation from the Democratic Republic of Congo has just completed an official trip to Nigeria, at the invitation of President Olusegun Obasanjo, to take part in the meeting of the stakeholders of the DRC-Nigeria Business Council, as well as in a Forum on investments in the DRC, which was held on January 21, 2023, at the Sheraton Hotel Ikeja, in Lagos.

During this Forum, the Director General of the National Agency for Investment Promotion (ANAPI), Mr. Anthony Nkinzo Kamole, made a presentation to the public authorities and Nigerian businessmen present at this business meeting, addressing the issue of the business climate in the DRC and the progress made recently in terms of reforms to make the country more attractive to national and foreign investors. He spoke at length about the country’s solid economic outlook, confirmed by several rating agencies, and the renewal of structural partnerships with donors such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Finally, he gave an overview of the many business opportunities the DRC offers through some sectoral niches identified as the government’s priorities and answered the audience’s various questions.

The Nigerian delegation was composed of, among others: His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, Honorary President of Nigeria; His Excellency Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State; His Excellency Professor Chukwuma Soludo, Governor of Anambra State; His Excellency Engineer Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State; Mr. Rabiu Umar, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Dangote Group; Dr. Hassan Usman, CEO of Accredited Consulting Ltd. Dr. Stella Okoli, Group Managing Director of EMZOR Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Mr. Hassan Usman, CEO of Excredite Consulting Ltd, etc.

On the Congolese side, in addition to the Director General of ANAPI, the delegation was composed of Mrs. Nicole Sulu, Founder of the MAKUTANO business network; Mr. Kalaa Mpinga, Congolese mining and agro-industrial entrepreneur, President of the National Agriculture and Forestry Commission of the Federation of Enterprises of Congo (FEC); Mrs. Cathy Latiwa Amato, lawyer and founder of Latiwa Development Foundation active in Nigeria and the DRC, and Mr. Yannick Loleka Yemia, representative of Mr. Pacifique Kahasha, Chargé de Missions du Chef de l’Etat.
Dr. Nteraya Sanginga, Director General of IITA, moderated the discussions.

Closing this business meeting, President Obasanjo thanked the two delegations, Congolese and Nigerian, for their involvement and the quality of the exchanges. He finally urged the stakeholders to increase synergy and permanent follow-up of the resolutions taken jointly. "The money to invest and develop Africa is in Africa, among Africans. Therefore, our ability to come together and work in unity will be the engine of positive transformation of our societies amid industrialization," he concluded.

In addition, as a prelude to the DRC-Nigeria Business Council meeting, President Olusegun Obasanjo invited the Congolese delegation to the inauguration on January 20, 2023, of the Greenhouse recently built by IITA in one of its farms in Abeokuta in Ogun State, Nigeria. This is a greenhouse and laboratory cassava stem screening and multiplication project, the first of its kind implemented by IITA outside the Institute’s campus. In concrete terms, this laboratory will enable Obasanjo Farms Nigeria to produce quality cassava stems in large quantities and thus immediately impact the revival of the cassava seed industry throughout Nigeria.

Let us recall here that this project results in particular from the exchanges that the President of the Republic, His Excellency Félix A. Tshisekedi Tshilombo, had with the Honorary President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo on several issues of high importance, including the Agenda for Agricultural Transformation of the DRC (ATA-DRC), implemented since February 2022 by the Ministry of Agriculture and for which the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) plays the role of technical assistance. Indeed, the vision of the Head of State, through this program, is to make agriculture a sector that generates wealth and creates jobs in DRC.

ANAPI