Nigeria's Lagos Safer Than Delhi? Industrialist Sunil Mittal Replies To Panelist

Bharti Enterprises Founder and Chairperson Sunil Bharti Mittal on Friday countered a fellow panelist who shared an incident to compare Lagos with Delhi on safety parameters during a session at the B20 summit here.

Mr Mittal said Delhi has become a safe place and billions of dollars of investments are being poured in.

The exchange took place after Mr Mittal asked Tolaram Corporation Chief Executive Sajen Aswani his opinion on personal safety in Africa at the summit.

In response, Mr Aswani shared an incident where he interviewed a young woman from Delhi who was looking for a job in Lagos.

"During the interview, I asked the girl, 'Listen, you are competent, but could you come to Nigeria? Are you sure?' And she said, 'Sir, are you kidding? I live in Delhi'."

"That was her answer. And it struck me that she thought that Lagos is safer than Delhi. So the security issue is overblown," he said.

Countering Mr Aswani, Mr Mittal said Africa needs to send a strong message on governance, on a corruption-free environment, and very importantly provide safety to people who go there to work.

"This will become very important in the coming days and I urge all those people who are working close to Africa to pick up this message very strongly.

"On a lighter note, I would say that this girl must have been very desperate to get a job to say that she would be safer in Lagos as compared to Delhi. I would not endorse that," he said.

He said Delhi is extremely safe nowadays where billions and billions of dollars are being poured in.

"This is not to say that Africa is not safe. Our billions of dollars have been invested there. I would say the impression outside is not as great as those people who work there.

"Tatas are there, Godrej, Bajaj are there, but there are lots of other companies who are not there. I hope they can take comfort from these companies from India who are doing business in Africa," Mr Mittal said.

The three-day summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), ends on Sunday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)