OLU RAHEEM
On 7th October,1960, Finland officially recognised Nigeria as a sovereign country and established diplomatic relations established with her, three years later, precisely 18th January 1963. About 60 years later, in 2018, the Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, expressed her country’s commitment to promote trade relations with Nigeria. It includes the availability of funding instruments for promoting business partnership between Finland and Nigeria. Two years on, in 2021, working with the current Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Jyrki Pulkkinen, the Finnish-born Head, Business Finland Nigeria and Trade Commissioner for Finland in West Africa, Mr. Olu Raheem, throws more light on how far the Nigerian-Finland relationship has gone and how deep they desire the union to get. Speaking with Kunle Aderinokun and Chris Paul, Raheem says, the relationship is anchored on a mutually beneficial partnership across socio-economic spectra
What is the state of Finland-Nigeria business cooperation, today?
When you look at the Finnish-Nigeria’s history, there have always been good ties. When you look at it from my angle, which is the business and investments relations, we know there is still a lot to do. I think there has been great strides and improvements within the last 10 years. We have moved forward. We have seen Finnish companies coming in their numbers; especially the smaller companies being more interested in Africa. And when you talk about Africa, you can’t take Nigeria away.
Of course, I would always like to say we have played our part. But we also recognise the situation that surround business environment also affect development, one way or another.
One of the things that have affected the potentials and increasing interest in Nigeria and Africa now, is in the fact that it is the last continent that has been properly tapped into.
We have seen European countries go into Asia and what China, other Asian countries and Americans have gone through and how they have transformed into first world countries by themselves.
Logically, it is now Africa’s turn. How fast and how soon this will happen, we have our question marks. But we know we are moving forward. And when you look at Finland, being a small country has always opted for a business relationships and interactions that are mutually beneficial. Finland was never and has never been a conquering nation. It is almost like every African nation that has at some point in her history been under some colonial power. In the beginning they were under Sweden and after that, they were under Russia and that’s where they got their Independence from.
So, there is no history of being a colonial country. So, anything they got has to be through mutually beneficial business interactions and partnerships. We can see great strides. Everybody has been following the news; for the fourth year in a row, Finland has been voted the happiest country in the world.
When you talk about happiness, you are looking at parameters that are anchored on security, social interactions, policies, welfare… You can be in Finland and be rest assured that your way of living is up to global standard and above; no matter what your situation is. Are you sick, homeless or poor? The government and the society will provide enough resources for you to survive; to some extent.
So, we can definitely see these great strides.
This COVID-19 has affected everyone. We were planning for the Prime Minister of Finland to come. Finland has the second youngest Prime Minister, indeed, the youngest female Prime Minister at the moment.
When you look at the Finnish cabinet, about 62 per cent of them are female. So, it is also progressive in that nature. We planned a visit for and also the Minister of Trade too, but this COVID-19 has disrupted that.
Looking at strides and what Finland is known for, you will discover that there is a lot of technology.
Of course, we are aware that technology has thrived tremendously during this COVID time. If there is a brand Nigerians are familiar with, especially in the telecoms sector, it is Nokia. Lots of Nigerians believe Nokia is a Japanese GSM Product. But it is actually a Finnish phone. Of course, they are not producing the phone in the capacity that they used to… As you know, they used to be number one in all phone categories.
But now, Nokia is more focused on the telecoms infrastructure, which is big, but it is more hidden. However, you have to be inside the business of telecoms to really feel the depth. So, Nokia is turning out to be a strong player in the 4G, 5G networks that are coming up. And it is doing very well in Nigeria and we have seen that is one of the strong instruments of growth area. Every telecoms operator is increasing its capacity by focusing on high-end infrastructure development.
And when you check the numbers, the operators are doing very well. Airtel is posting best results ever, MTN is doing great. There’s always somebody that is enjoying the situation that might be harsh for others.
For us too, in Finland, we have concentrated on solutions in products and services that we can work with, in Nigeria, with Nigerians at this moment that will serve both countries mutually.
We are looking at waste management, waste to energy… Finland loves to talk about circular economy. And they are really putting energy and resources into being at the forefront of circular economy. There is a circular economy fund that Finland is launching very soon. And one of the fund advisers is going to be with the African Development Bank. So, they are going to be partly in charge of the fund. They are at African countries and especially Nigeria, to a great extent.
That’s something we have been working on the last one year; working with Lagos State, working with organisations like Circular Economy Innovation Partnership (CEIP) and others, trying to push the application of the circular economy initiative forward. We are looking at what resources and what frameworks we can develop together.
Just like you said, there is so much potentials and resources to be tapped into; and circularity in general, we have had our ways of doing it, you know, some people pick up trash and ferry it forward… You know, Lagos has a way in which, relatively, the system works. Though everything might not be well-orchestrated or structured but one way or the other, we have always managed. And that has been the surprise for a lot of foreigners that how can 25 million people manage so well; you don’t even have a sophisticated waste management system, but you find a way to make it work.
So, it’s about really tapping into some of these systems and improving them. You know something that is already working within a situation of chaos, you know if you add a bit of system and structure to it, the results will be exponential. Exponential growth.
Those are some of the things we are looking at. So Finland is very deep into circular economy.
We have been developing a framework, bringing a lot of companies together as much as we can during this COVID times.
What are the sectors that have high Finland-Nigeria business focus?
ICT is at the forefront of this and SITRA, the Finnish innovation fund. It works with all sectors of innovation, not only ICT. They have been active lately, especially with Circular Economy when it comes to Nigeria.
Like I said, we are a very big proponent of circular economy. Also, power generation, we have Wartsila, one of biggest companies, a lot of people don’t know that the company has the installed capacity of about 10 per cent of the current level of daily power generation in Nigeria.
They have been here since the 70s. But you know Finnish companies are entities that you really don’t hear much about in the media and they don’t do enough PR and all of that. It’s mainly because they are business to business companies. So, you have to be in their line of business and allied sectors to know them. They are not a consumer service or products firm in that sense. For instance, you have to be in the cement sector to know that the company powers all the cement plants of one of the top players in the Nigerian cement industry.
But then, there are lots of small, small, smaller interactions; and we are also looking at, you know, at the other side. What’s been exported into Europe, Finland? We are looking at Cocoa, Palm Oil, Cashew nuts; what is good about interaction with Finland is that it is part of EU. So, it is basically EU rules. Nigerian products and services, Companies that meet the EU criteria are free to tap into the opportunities that abound within that sphere.
Do these business interactions spill into softer sectors such as culture and entertainment?
I want to believe that has happened more naturally than in other heavy parts of the economy. As you know we look at things strictly from a business perspective. But lately, we have found that the Nigerian entertainment industry has been gaining some traction in Finland. The music and movie industry for instance have turned to be more popular in Finland than one can imagine.
Sometimes back, they had an African movie festival and it was largely dominated by Nollywood. Some of the Nollywood actors told me they were treated like stars. They told me they took lots of photographs, signed countless autographs and generally enjoyed Hollywood-styled status and of course, loads of fun in Finland. So, the Finland audience really know them.
I believe this is a testimony to the power of communications technology, the internet and all that. People have access to some of these movies. I have friends in Finland who have never been to Nigeria and they know Nollywood actors.
Before they would ask me to bring them the DVDs and stuff. But now, with Netflix and other online movie concerns, access to these movies are now very easy across the world.
So, the Nigerian movie and music industry is really booming.
You know, for a Nigerian Artiste, the only way you can make money in Nigeria is either you have a big sponsor or you do big concerts; or do weddings, events and so on. But in Europe, you actually do tours. And every month, before the COVID struck, there was a Nigerian Artiste performing in Finland. Yes. Every month!
Burna Boy, Davido, all of them have been to Finland.
I know some of the promoters there and the managers, here; and they told me that is where they actually make money.
That’s why I said it has happened more naturally. And the business part of it, which is evolving rapidly is being demand-driven. The demand is that we want these people to come and perform. They arrange it and of course, the Embassy sees them may be when they are travelling or applying for visas and they go and they come back.
There people go to concerts and they are ready to pay quite a lot; €50, €60 per person and they have 1,000, 2,000 capacity halls etc.
How about Food and Fashion?
Like I said, what we see with food is that it doesn’t go directly to Finland. It usually passes through these bigger countries Germany, France, Holland and then to Finland.
For fashion, because of the power of social media and the internet generally, we see the influx of African and Nigerian-inspired fashion. We have Finnish fashion designers that import of Ankaras, Adires, Aso-Okes and make some things out of them. I have a friend, who has a wife who is a big fashion designer and because we have a strong relationship, I have even helped her to carry some of the clothing stuff to Finland during my travels.
