FG seeks to convert $50bn announcements into actual investments

The Federal government has moved to convert over $50 billion in investment announcements for Nigeria since the inception of the current administration into actual investments.

Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja at the Top Management Retreat for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole said they have summarized all investment announcements during President Bola Tinubu official trips.

“We have aggregated all Mr. President’s trips since before we came on board, over 30 trips, and we saw that about $50 billion has been announced and promised for the Nigerian economy.

“That is about the figure that people say we need to rebalance this economy, so we group them into sectors, and we are going after those businesses” she stated.

Oduwole explained that it is important for those announcements and those companies to actualize these investments.

She promised smooth processes free of any bottleneck in order to enable the monies to come home.

Furthermore, the Minister who has spent only 100 days in office said the focus of the ministry is on businesses operating in Nigeria. “Investment retention is extremely important, so we have decided to give them maximum attention.

“We started with Nigerian exporters in November, the 100 top exporters in Nigeria. We had a ministerial consultation with them. Of course, I had known a lot of their challenges from the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (BEPEB), but it was important to come up with an action plan.

“So we started implementing that action plan, and I think they will bear witness even with the implementation, the approval of the National Single Window Project and the trade facilitation.

“We also continue to speak with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and bigger businesses. We took some time to map out what our trade policy review should look like at the end of October, we had our WTO review, which is once in seven years, and we had over 400 questions from different countries, which signifies interest in Nigeria’s economy.

“We have also had international outings, we were in Paris. We were in South Africa, and we have received international guests. The Prime Minister of India, and the President of Germany.

“We were at Davos speaking at a very targeted intervention. Nigeria is a digital trade champion under the AfCFTA, and we go for services because over 50 percent of Nigeria’s GDP is in services”.

The Minister expressed confidence that these engagements would yield economic growth for Nigeria in 2025.

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