China has continued to take advantage of Nigeria’s growing economic potential, as Chinese company, ZKTeco disclosed its plan to invest in the country.
Apart from the research and development centre, it’s also planning to establish its business here in order to serve as the hub for the sub-Saharan market. This is according to the global president and founder of ZKTeco, John Che.
While speaking with journalists at an interactive session organized by its local partner, SB telecoms and Devices Limited, Che said Nigeria was considered to act as hub for the rest of Africa because of the country’s strategic position on the continent.
He said this includes its population, market size, the GDP, as well as the government’s efforts to transform the economy via its diversification agenda and encouragement of foreign investments.
In addition to the businesses that will be set up across the country, Che said that the R&D centre would be located at the University of Lagos in order to take advantage of the abundant local talents and create solutions that can run on ZKTeco platforms.
“ZKTeco already has a presence in South Africa and Egypt, but based on our growth objectives and the fact that Africa has a strong growth prospect, we decided to increase our stake in Africa and we identified Nigeria as the epicenter of Africa, representing the strongest growth prospect on the continent, with opportunities to collaborate on its identity management and biometrics standard needs,” Che added.
Why this matters: As the ZKTeco founder said, the investment of the company in Nigeria will help in developing a biometric identity as the country is currently not largely driven by this. He gave the example of China’s remarkable growth over the past three decades, which he said was largely driven by the Asian giant’s ability to establish a robust identity management process. Hopefully with this, the country’s development will be fast-tracked.
What you should know: According to the President of the China Chambers of Commerce in Nigeria, Ye Shuijin, the investments of China in the country is currently over $20 billion and still counting. With about 160 firms operating, over 200,000 Nigerians have been employed by these companies.’
