ONE of the leading business conglomerates in the Western hemisphere, Andrade Gutierrez (AG Group) of Brazil, has indicated interest in electricity generation, distribution and port development in the country.AG Group President (Africa) Rodrigo Da Costa Fonseca disclosed this when a delegation from the conglomerate, led by the Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil, Vincent Okedion visited the Minister of Works, Mike Onolumeme in his office in Abuja.He noted that there is a huge potential for power generation in Nigeria from different sources, especially hydro, adding that the firm would build and operate power generation and distribution facilities in the country.Fonseca who described Nigeria as the most important country on the African continent, observed that AG Group wants to do business with Nigeria and is very optimistic about the possibilities, stressing that they would give more focus to power generation in Nigeria.He said: 'We have concluded from our studies to invest in energy and power distribution as well as port development. We are working on identifying projects in the two sectors in order to bring financial support for the projects to be implemented. A team from Brazil would soon join the conglomerate to implement projects in the energy sector.'We want to finetune our strategy and work plan for our investment in Nigeria. 'Nigeria is a challenge for any investor, because of its huge population and for a successful investment, you must understand the complexity of the country and also find out the priority areas for the economy'.He stated that the AG Group, which is a multi disciplinary business group with activities ranging from telecommunications, hospital administration, engineering infrastructure, energy, concessions was founded in 1948 and has been operating in Africa since 1983.The Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil, who led the delegation of investors to the Ministry of Works, Vincent Okedion, described the AG Group as the second largest conglomerate in Latin America and had decided to set up an office in Nigeria, adding that their coming to the country was facilitated by President Goodluck Jonathan's visit to Brazil in June 2012.He observed that the second largest power plant in the world was built by the conglomerate, which generates 14,0000mwatts and is currently building the third largest power plant in the world in Amizon wilderness in Brazil, which would generate 11,000kilowatts of electricity.Okedion said that the AG Group's turnover in 2010 was more than $10 billion, adding that the conglomerate's official were in the Federal Ministry of Works because the transformation agenda of the present administration has infrastructural development as its key component.The Minister described the conglomerate's intension as a good development as the ministry has the responsibility of building federal roads and bridges in the country.He told the delegation that the ministry currently overseas about 35,000 kilometres of road network and assets and is currently modernising the major arterial roads by expending and dualising them.'We are in a haste to develop and cover lost grounds because we believe that our economy cannot grow if key infrastructures are not provided. Want to catch up with developed countries like Brazil. The ministry would partner with the company in order to drive the infrastructural development in the country,' Onolumeme said.
Click here to read full news..
