Nigeria has expressed commitment to encourage critical policies and regulations that would harness the benefits of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).
Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, reported in Abuja at a 2-Day workshop on Federal-State Strategy on Investment Promotion for Rural Development.
The workshop was organised by the ministry, in collaboration with the Nigeria Entrepreneurs Forum (NEF) to design a plan for collaboration between Federal and State Governments to attract and sustain investments for rural development.
Sani-Gwarzo, in a keynote address said that it was critical for governments to have policies and regulations to help attract and retain FDI and equally enhance its contribution to sustainable development.
He noted that in these times when African continent had decided to pull down some economic borders and become one large market, individual African nations needed to be more strategic in their economic policies.
According to him, Nigeria’s population at about 200 million, makes us attractive globally because we are a target in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“Our neighbours are attracting investors, with the promise that they can produce in their countries and sell in Nigeria, and they are offering diverse kinds of incentives to make that happen.
“To prevent Nigeria from becoming the dumping ground for goods and services produced in our sister African states, Nigeria has to be very deliberate and strategic henceforth in her investment promotion and facilitation.
“It is, therefore expedient for each state in the nation to come up with investment promotion strategies that will attract investment, boost internally generated revenue and help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to be competitive.
“This will pave way for made-in Nigeria exports and sustain our comparative advantage,’’ the permanent secretary said.
He said that it was in recognition of the need for a strategy that the workshop was organised to place Nigerian economy on the path of sustainable growth and development.
Sani-Gwarzo, while calling for coordination and collaboration between critical stakeholders, urged participants for action plans with timelines and strategy to gain investor’s confidence and attract needed investments into the critical sectors of the economy.
In an address, Mrs Abimbola Arodudu, Director, Investment Promotion of the ministry, considered the workshop a priority due to the AfCFTA, which the continent was bonding to form an economic coalition.
According to her, the trade agreement can either make or mar the economies of individual African states, depending on how it is handled.
Arodudu said that it was apt for Nigeria to decide her own fate by determining areas of comparative advantages, laying emphasis on them and directing incoming FDI into them for the good of the people.
“If we are to reap maximum benefit from the AfCFTA, we must tackle the myriad of challenges confronting us in the areas of poverty, food security, threats to security of lives, unemployment and infrastructural decay amongst others,” she said.
The director noted that investments into Nigeria were expected to be mostly into the states, but some high net investors had insisted on the involvement of the federal government in the inflow of their investment.
On this background, she underscored the need for the federal and state governments to work together and ensure that such investments were not lost to our sister African nations, as it is currently the case.
Dr Mustapha Jubril, Niger State Commissioner of Investment, Commerce and Industry, also commended the ministry on the workshop adding that it would assist state governments to woe investors.
Jubril, while noting that Nigeria, especially the states, had a lot of raw materials and resources needed for investment added that the workshop was needed to streamline investment activities between the governments to reap its benefits.
