From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

 

The Federal Government has declared that it will encourage investment in various economic sectors in order to lessen Nigeria’s dependency on debt.

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Saratu Umar made the disclosure to State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Recall that the Debt Management Office, said Nigeria’s total debt as of 30th June, 2015 stood at N12.12 trillion but by 30th June, 2022, the figure had risen to N42.84 trillion, showing an increase of 253.47 per cent.

The head of the NIPC stated that President Buhari supported the initiative to boost Nigeria’s investment drive and was willing to do everything in his power while still in office to ensure that the initiative gained significant traction.

“So I’m very encouraged and I’ve been given a lot of energy now, to continue what we’re doing at the commission that would help the investment promotion drives of Nigeria. As you know, we have the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement now area in force, and the FDI will now try to locate anywhere on the African continent as a signatory to this agreement.

“The aim for us as a nation to ensure that we channel FDI to Nigeria, so that we can facilitate import substitution, because when we facilitate import substitution, we will be able to conserve Forex, and then also channeling investments into the export sectors of the country.”

Umar said that when they’re able to facilitate exports, they will be able to generate more foreign exchange noting, “there’s a challenge with foreign exchange and supplying everything we believe once we do that, the play of import substitution and forex generation will also help the value of the naira and make life easier for Nigerians.”

She added that the Commission believes that once they’re able to bring an investment to different sectors of the economy, the burden of debt will decline.

According to her, “some of the reliance we’ve had on debt will be reduced because investments will now be able to play in certain sectors that would minimize the rate.”

The Executive Secretary said the purpose of the visit was to President Buhari, being the chief investment promoter of the nation on the different initiatives the Commission is handling at the moment.

Umar said the briefing was also to bring the President up to speed on investment ecosystem and the plans the NIPC has going forward to revamp the investment drive of the country.

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“I have briefed him on the ongoing development of the Nigerian Investment Promotion masterplan that takes into cognizance the different sectoral master plans that have been developed by Nigeria.

“We have the master plan for agriculture, solid mineral and there are a number of blueprints and policies that the government has developed, in addition to the national development plan that we all know has been developed by the country.

“So we’re looking at the different sectors that are stated in these different plans, and then deriving our own investment drive along those sectors so that we go for targeted specific investment drive, targeting different countries and not replicating those countries, as well as investors as well.”

This, the Executive Secretary said was an ongoing plan being developed and once the Commission accomplished it, it would engage with different stakeholders before the President Buhari launches in a date to be announced soon.

Umar explained that the NIPC is mandated to coordinate all investment promotion activities in the different sectors effectively, saying “we’re putting up the framework to have that coordination in a more strategic manner.”

On the effect of the present security situation in wooing foreign investors into the country, the NIPC boss: “There are certain parts of Nigeria that are not really undergoing this issue and for those ones and we’re trying to ensure we get investors to those areas.

“And for those that are having insecurity issue, we’re trying to work doubly hard to see what’s possible within the situation we find ourselves.”

According to her, what investors would be more concerned about are issues like Ease of Doing Business, saying “when we re-energize the commission, we’ll be able to give more effective services to investors.

“By the time the Commission is able to bring in more investors, they’ll create jobs, and once they create jobs, all of this has a way of minimizing some of the situations confronting the nation.”