Nigeria’s foreign reserve has
hit about $50 billion, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister
of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala revealed and declared Nigeria as
Africa’s current best investment destination
“With a
foreign reserve of nearly 50 billion dollars, a stable exchange rate, strong
banking sector, massive human and natural resources, Nigeria has indeed become
one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world”, a statement
from the ministry quoted the minister as telling visiting British investors led
by the Lord Mayor of the city of London, Mr. Roger Gifford, in Abuja,
yesterday.
The British investors are in Nigeria to explore
investment opportunities in the country.
Speaking on Friday on the country’s economy,
Okonjo-Iweala told the investors that Nigeria currently was the largest economy
in West Africa, second largest in Africa with potential to become the largest
African economy in the next five years.
The Coordinating Minister proudly told the
investors that Nigeria has managed to bring her inflationary rate to a single
digit of 8.6%.
In her explanation, she assured the investors
that Nigeria is relatively enjoying a stable exchange rate, clean and strong
banking sector.
Notwithstanding, the Minister of Finance told
the investors that despite the huge success the country has recorded in the
macro-economic sphere, there are other challenges staring at the nation which
include unemployment, poor infrastructure, corruption, governance challenge and
power. According to her, Nigeria is not relenting in tackling these challenges
through several reforms in various sectors in order to rank among the eight
strongest economies in the world, in no distant time.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, while detailing the steps so
far taken in addressing these challenges said that through the Transformation
Agenda of the present administration, Nigeria has tried to diversify the
economy instead of depending on oil as the only source of income. In her words,
Agriculture and Entertainment have been given enough priority owing to their
capacity to create jobs for Nigeria teaming unemployed youths.
The Minister said that the government has made
frantic efforts to reduce infrastructural problems that were inherited from
past administrations in Nigeria. She said that the present government is
partnering with China in order to revive the rail sector. Other areas that have
received attention are construction and rehabilitation of roads which according
to the Minister will boost easy movement of goods and services.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala assured the investors
that the power problem would soon be a thing of the past as government has
taken a bold step to privatise the power sector. She told the British visitors
that the privatization had almost been completed.
On the aviation sector, the Minister informed
the investors that there was serious re-modelling of the country’s airports to
meet with international standards.
As a follow up, the Mayor of London, Mr. Gifford
asked the Minister of the time frame for the completion of the privatization of
the power sector, the Minister assured him of a speedy completion as all
bottlenecks to the privatization process had been removed.
On the question of Nigeria debt management, the
Minister informed the investors that due to past experiences, Nigeria is now
allergic to borrowing and has also reduced its domestic debt to 19% and
external debt to 2%.
Source: Vanguard
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