Suurten mahdollisuuksien maa

An article I wrote about the trip. The Nigerian version can be seen here.

Moni tuntee Nigerian lähinnä sähköpostilla yhteyttä ottavista prinsseistä ja liikemiehistä, jotka kaipaavat luotettavan suomalaisen apua huomattavan rahasumman siirtämisessä. Tämä Afrikan väkirikkain maa ja yksi merkittävimmistä talouksista ansaitsee kuitenkin tarkemman tutustumisen, ainakin Ministeri Väyrysen pääkaupunkiin Abujaan ja miljoonakaupunki Lagosiin viemän kauppavaltuuskunnan mielestä.

Neljän päivän tiiviillä viennin ja kansainvälistämisen edistämisen matkalla ehdittiin tavata neljä ministeriä yhdessä aamupäivässä, osallistua seminaariin Länsi-Afrikan talousyhteisön päämajassa, vierailla nykyisen presidentti Goodluck Jonathanin ja Lagosin kuvernööri Babatunde Raji Fasholan luona, edistää suhteita paikalliseen suomiyhdistykseen, sekä tietysti tutustua monipuolisesti kaupankäynnin mahdollisuuksiin tapaamalla kymmenittäin paikallisia yrityksiä.

”Afrikan markkinat ovat houkuttelevat, sillä hyödyntämättömiä mahdollisuuksia on niin paljon”, kuvailee yritysvaltuuskunnan konkari, Bronto Skyliftin edustaja Richard Deo. 26 Afrikka-vuoden kokemuksellaan hän ohjeistaa suomalaiskollegoitaan, että Nigeriaan täytyy tulla tuomaan käyntikortti henkilökohtaisesti. Vuoden takaista Nigerian varapresidentin Suomen-vierailua järjestäneet Ulkoministeriön Helena Airaksinen ja Pirjo Virtanen yhtyvät Deon neuvoon: ”Nigeriaa ja nigerialaisia ymmärtää paremmin Nigeriassa kuin Suomessa. Matka on yllättänyt positiivisesti, täällä maan potentiaali on todella tullut esille!”

Valtuuskuntaa johtava ministeri Väyrynen näkee Nigerian haastavana toimintaympäristönä, mutta myös suurten mahdollisuuksien maana. ”Nigeriaa ja Suomea on siunattu eri tavoin, Suomea ankaralla ilmastolla ja vähäisillä luonnonvaroilla, ja sen ansiosta meidän oli pakko kehittää edistynyttä teknologiaa. Nigerialle taas on siunautunut paljon luonnonvaroja. Meillä on erilaiset vahvuudet, mutta maillamme on paljon annettavaa toisilleen.” Mahdollisuudet houkuttelevat myös yritysdelegaation puheenjohtajaa, Metso-konsernin Jukka Seppälää. Seppälä suosittelee kansainvälistä kauppaa jo tekeviä suomalaisyrityksiä erityisesti energia- ja infrastruktuurialoilta harkitsemaan Nigeriaa: ”Oikeilla tuotteilla ja kumppaneilla täällä pääsee kyllä hyviin tuloksiin.”

Kahdenvälisissä kauppasuhteissa on vielä tekemistä. Jos Suomen nykyinen vienti Nigeriaan on lapsenkengissään, on Nigerian vienti Suomeen vielä vaatimattomampaa. Uusia siltoja eri tavoin siunattujen Suomen ja Nigerian välille Väyrynen haluaa rakentaa kutsumalla nigerialaisia ministereitä ja liikemiehiä Suomeen mahdollisimman pian. Lagosin kauppakamariin kertynyttä yleisöä ministerimme hauskuuttaa kuvailemalla Lapin hyttysiäkin ystävällisiksi ulkomaalaisia kohtaan.

Mutta mistä johtuu Nigerian maine erityisen haastavana maana? ”Monet toimintatavat ovat Nigeriassa aivan erilaisia. Kun meille riittää lyödä kättä päälle kaupanteon vahvistamiseksi, Nigeriassa kannattaa luottaa vasta siinä vaiheessa kun rahat ovat siirtyneet”, kertoo Suomessa kasvanut mutta sukujuuriltaan nigerialainen, matkalla Metso Automation:ia edustanut Olu Raheem. Kulttuurierojen lisäksi eroja löytyy myös käytännöistä, sillä esimerkiksi suuri osa rahaliikenteestä hoidetaan Nigeriassa vielä käteisellä. ”Toisaalta täällä otetaan asiat rennommin, ollaan iloisia ja onnellisia vaikkei omistettaisi niin paljon. Ja länsimaissa stressitaso on paljon korkeampi, vaikka täällä töitä tehdäänkin seitsemänä päivänä viikossa”, jatkaa Raheem.

Suomalaisille haastavaa voi olla myös se, ettei Nigeriassa kaikki aina suju suunnitelmien mukaan, vaikka asiat loppujen lopuksi tapaavatkin loksahtaa kohdalleen. Tästä kokemusta sai erityisesti Merivaaran edustaja Mika Alalauri, jonka hotellin matkatavarasäilytykseen jättämä laukku oli lähtenyt vahingossa brasilialaisdelegaation matkaan. Kun kauhistunut matkatoimistovirkailija ilmoitti laukun olevan matkalla Sudaniin, sai hän vastaukseksi naurunremakan – Sudan kun oli myös Alalaurin seuraava matkakohde!

Metson Seppälän kolumni Kauppapolitiikassa

You’re welcome, Dr. Praavo Vayrnen

It’s Friday afternoon and I just got back home from a work day that started on Sunday noon. But I couldn’t be in a better mood, for we had a fantastic trip with the Finnish business delegation and the minister for foreign trade and development!

The program started on Sunday in Abuja, with a welcome dinner in the Ambassador’s residence. Our nice dinner by the pool was interrupted by a storm (could never have expected – I’ve never seen rain in Nigeria before!) but the delegation didn’t mind too much, they just continued drinking gt’s until all the Ambassador’s gin was finished.

On Monday we had a high level meeting, attended by a few ministers and other high government representatives, plenty of media and the satisfied Finnish companies. Then we contined to an ECOWAS seminar, and finally to a dinner, hosted by the Nigerian minister for commerce and industries for our honorable minister Dr. Praavo Vayrnen.

Tuesday morning we checked out the local investment promotion commission, had a lunch with one minister, met the acting president and flew to Lagos. Nigeria being Nigeria, the governor’s office had confirmed on Mon evening that they would provide transportation and security for our stay in Lagos, and so we were greeted in the airport by three cars, two buses and some ten security personnel. Watching the security men clear traffic congestion was quite something: the black men dressed in suits, with their big weapons, jumping on and off from the cars to direct other traffic to let us go through. Normally taking about two hours, we were at the fancy hotel in 45 minutes to have an excellent and very warm dinner by the Nigerian Finnish friendship association (for Minister Vayrguen and Ambassador Vuornien).

Wednesday was allocated for a business seminar allowing the Finnish companies to meet with Nigerian business people. In the afternoon we met the governor and had an internal wrap-up dinner before the Minister headed to the airport for a flight back to Helsinki. I was really flattered, for in his last speech special thanks were directed to me and Johanna (a project officer from the ministry, who did a lot of the work with me). Happy for the successful trip, I enjoyed a few glasses of wine with our core organizing team and headed to Lagos nightlife.

On Thursday we had a field visit to the port, a lunch in a trendy cultural centre, and organized an ad hoc meeting with the local government before saying goodbye to the rest of the ministry’s representatives and the business delegation.

One thing that I will remember from the trip is that it was really full of peculiar incidents. The most astonishing one happened here in Abuja: one of the business delegates had left his suitcase in the hotel’s storage room, and when he went to pick it up, the embarrased hotel staff told they had lost it; they had given it by accident to the Brazilian delegation who had already checked out. A few phone calls and we learn that the Brazilian delegation had taken off for Sudan – which was exactly the lost suitcase’s owner’s next destination! He even had the same hotel with them!

final countdown

I am staying in a hotel that’s probably the most expensive I’ve ever been to and it still feels more like just a normal European hotel. But at least the bed is as wide as it is long, and I have a balcony to the sea. The embassy actually would have paid for a bit cheaper room with a view of the city, but I convinced the receptionist to give me an upgrade due to the ministerial visit next week. Today, I also convinced the airport security to let me in to the “with an authorization badge only” area. Clearly the diplomatic environment is beneficial to negotiation skills!

So I’m in one of the largest cities in the world, Lagos. Flew in last night; my original flight was cancelled and the replacement one hour late, and when I arrived, my driver with the promised “Embassy of Finland” sign was nowhere to be seen. Luckily I had his number, and so I called and heard that he was expecting me tomorrow! While the car hiring company was busy checking the locations of their drivers and the Embassy staff in Abuja terrified, I decided to accept the hospitality of a Lebanese art gallery owner from Abuja that I’d made friends with while waiting for the delayed flight. I shared a taxi with him to meet with his friends in a nearby hotel. It was already so late that I changed the planned work program for a few drinks with a group of Lebanese who had been living years and years in Nigeria. I don’t know what’s with the Lebanese, but all of them seem to have very prosperous companies, and so I spent the evening hearing business stories ranging from the construction industry corruption to setting up of a furniture factory. At the end of the fun evening they kindly dropped me off at the hotel.

Today I spent driving around Lagos with my easy-going driver who I made to play all his favourite Nigerian songs to me. Checking all the details with all those actors involved with the next week’s ministerial visit was fun, but it felt quite a responsibility, too.

In the evening I went to the airport to pick up security police and someone else, and after waiting two hours in the tropical micro climate of the airport, I finally received the two grumpy visitors who had lost their luggage.

My day was so busy that I did not even have time to have lunch or dinner (fortunately the room service makes sandwiches 24h!). I need to come back to Lagos sometime during the spring, to see what the city is really like. But I already like it, despite most of the expats (again) advicing me otherwise.

Greetings to Pasila

This post is dedicated to my colleagues in Pasila, who are doing fantastic work to make our life with IT a bit easier.

I was a bit amused when the person responsible for all administrative matters in the embassy told me that now that it’s so hot, the internet will occassionally be down. Surely the IT must be planned so well that the important work carried out in the Finnish embassies, both in the diplomatic section and the consular and visa affairs, is not disrupted with trivial IT problems, I thought. But I was so wrong.

Besides our satellite connection occassional overheating, the receiver part broke down a week ago Tuesday evening. I kept calling the help desks in Finland and the Netherlands, got to practise my engineering skills with troubleshooting the receiver module and finally had the replacement part sent immediately from Oslo via DHL. And convinced the not-so-technical staff of the embassy of ordering the repair engineer only once instead of twice, saving the Finnish taxpayer’s money directly over one thousand euros. I’m getting cheap to the Ministry!

So there we were, in the middle of the busiest time to set meetings for our Väyrynen with his Nigerian counterparts, without internet connection.

We sent the driver to get one of these usb stick internet connections, and I shared the connection through wlan with my macbook to cover the personal laptops the staff had brought (our computers don’t have wlan cards). Suprised by the amazement of the other staff, for once I felt that maybe there is a demand for people from my mixture-of-everything degree programme.

Still, our server is physically located in the embassy, and without the satellite connection we could not access the emails, and the consular staff could not access any of the visa and other important systems. Even worse, the three business days promised by DHL was too much as Friday was a holiday so the repair part was only delivered on Monday – meaning that the emails sent to the embassy emails started bouncing back to their senders. Really, I think that’s unacceptable. Not to mention the sending of official emails and verbal notes from our ugly gmail and yahoo email-addresses.

Finally on Monday we got the repair part and a local engineer who did a fantastic job and fixed the satellite in no time.

Then, on Tuesday, we hosted a press reception at the embassy, and on my way home late in the evening I get a text message from the Ambassor saying the internet is not working again … could not believe it. The next day at the office I learn that we have a scheduled maintenance break! Thanks, IT department!

What did I learn from this incident? Most suprising to me was that the other staff seemed to quietly accept the situation, while I was the only one really demanding that we never should have ended up with that mess. Like IT was something so complicated that it could not be handled and managed.

So despite the challenging times, keep up the good work, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen!

Yankari roadtrip

The hard-working Finnish embassy only celebrates Finnish holidays, but me and Anna decided to take the Nigerian holiday on Friday off work, for a weekend trip to the national park Yankari.

One from our roadtrip group knew the Governor of Bauchi state, and when we finally arrived after the seven-hour drive, the Governor himself welcomed us to the park and invited all twelwe of us to stay in his mansion’s “presidential lodge”. I was very grateful for the hospitality, but couldn’t help but think of what he might be expecting from his friend in return. But this is how Nigeria works.

After the long drive we were happy to grab some ice cold beers and chill out in the grand living room.

Just before midnight we headed to the wikki warm springs, to bath in the 31-degrees warm crystal clear water in the moonlight. The springs were definitely the best part of the trip. I couldn’t count the hours I spent in the water during the weekend.

Saturday started early with a game drive in the park. We were extremely lucky as besides the abundant birdlife, we got to see one of the park’s rare lions.

The wikki springs’ magical atmosphere of the night turned into a tropical paradise setting in the afternoon, and later into a water-park frenzy when a school group invaded our peaceful spot.

The day turned into evening and we lit a fire on the mansion’s backyard for some barbecue. After a feast for the non-vegetarians, we returned to the spring with music and partied and played in the water until late morning hours. I don’t need to tell how fun that was!

On Sunday morning, after our three drivers were good to go, we cleaned the lodge and collected our garbage neatly, just to see one of the staff members empty the garbage bin over the lodge’s fence to the park. Still, I think Yankari was a great weekend destination. Last year visited by three Finns, I think we could break the record this year.

(note: more pictures to come later!)