[center]Setting up Shop in Nigeria: A Guide[/center]

Despite its recent problems, Nigeria continues to offer Africas best economic prospects. South Africa, currently the continents leading economy (in terms of GNP per capita) has a population of about 42 million people. Good size. But this is nowhere near the population of its African brother up north. Where else on the continent can you get a 110 million-people market? The answer is obviously Nigeria, West Africas number one economy. About twice the size of California State, USA, this is an oil rich country, Africas number one oil producer, with the largest concentration of Blacks anywhere on earth. And by all accounts this emerging economy is poised for a boom. Nigerias main strength does not only reside only in its huge population, which guarantees prospective investors a constant harvest of good returns, the country is also rich in huge, yet-to-be-tapped reserves of crude oil, natural gas, bauxite, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc and columbite. With the enactment of new liberal investment laws, the business environment is now much more relaxed. The demise of military rule and the birth of the Fourth Republic have begun to usher in fresh waves of investment interests. Dr (Mrs) Ndi Okereke Onyiuke, the director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), notes that the bourse gets close to 50 requests weekly from foreign businessmen and women seeking answers and clarifications to various investment-related questions and issues. Sometimes we have to refer them to some of our more knowledgeable stockbrokers, she says.

Knowledge is power, so says an axiom. And when it comes to business prospecting the more knowledge one has about the business climate as it were, the better. You most probably have read so much and heard a lot about Nigeria and Nigerians already. But how much do you really know about the growing African giant, business-wise that is? This section will take you on a look-before-you-leap regulatory tour of the business environment. Or to put it more succinctly, a brief know-before-you-arrive guide before your departure for Africas most exciting business environment.

If you are considering bringing in a new venture into this land your first port of call should be any of the city offices of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC). The NIPC is a division of the Federal Ministry of Industries, and its information bureaus in almost every Nigerian city will assist you in your enquiries about investment opportunities and the procedure in Nigeria.

Should you be seeking joint venture deals or you desire suitable Nigerian partner(s) the NIPC will link you up. When your mind is set, and you have done your bit of homework on the prospects, opportunities and challenges in your area of business, you should do the following:

Apply to the director-general or permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, in Abuja, for permission to set up your business shop. You may also seek permits for expatriate employment here.

Register the name of your company with the Registrar of Companies, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Abuja. You should, you probably know this, seek independent legal assistance for this.

Notify the Industrial Inspectorate Division, Federal Ministry of Industries, of your intention to incur capital expenditure.



After all these, you must also not forget some other prerequisites: your documentation/papers of property/land acquisition; approved concessions (tax relief, import duty waivers, special status approvals et al). There is plenty of necessary paperwork involved in all these, but below is a snapshot of what to do and how to go about getting it done.

Write for approval of location in principle from the Federal Ministry of Industries.

Write to the director-general, Ministry of Internal Affairs for Immigration Approval or business permit with or without expatriate quota allocation. (A letter from your Nigerian-registered company requesting permission to employ an expatriate must be written to the Immigration Department via Consular Authorities).

To be considered for exchange control approval you must request for it, via an application and a supporting letter of intent , from the Exchange Control Officer in the Federal Ministry of Finance. Your documentation will also be supported by a questionnaire, provided for this purpose by the MoF.

To know whether you can obtain pioneer status you must apply to the Federal Ministry of Industries. The same ministry also approves User Licenses.

and all these i suppose will take atleast a year!

Federal Ministry of Industries
Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC).
director-general or permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs
Registrar of Companies, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC
Ministry of Internal Affairs for Immigration Approval
Exchange Control Officer in the Federal Ministry of Finance

you go through all these ministries and department just to set up a beauty shop?

Good day to you overe there,am OLUJIDE GABRIEL.Am the CEO of O2 NIGERIA, an Oyo State soap manufacturing and training company.We train people and interested soap manufacturing company on how to produce,

[1] NATURAL HERBAL HONEY SOAP[the soap that clean any skin infection in just 10 days]

[2] MOSQUITO KILLER CANDLE

[3] ANTI MALARIA SOAP

[4] PRESERVED PEPPER[preserved pepper that can lasted for 1 good year]

[5] LAUNDRY SOAP

[6] ANTISEPTIC SOAP

[7] LIQUID SOAP

[8]BALM

[9] BODY CREAM

[10] MEDICATED HAIR CREAM etc.

To be sure, the scope of the company is not only withing Nigeria,as the company has engage in training different company workers in Ghana and some big soap company in Nigeria.

We also have explanatory bulk hand out that contain 15 different products
Our price are negotiable and you can start any of this product with as low as 10,000.00.We will also teach you how to build local machine with wood to start with and some or our product are available on request.

After the training ,we also teach our trainees how to manufacture the soap equipment by their self and we also offer door step training for individual or group in any part of the Nigeria and west africa.

We are open to more negotiation on how to work this out.

Thanks

OLUJIDE OLUWATOSIN
CEO
O2 NIGERIA
25,ikereku lay out,orita challenge,
Ibadan,oyo state ,Nigeria
07037373022,08027140208
o2nigeria@yahoo.com