Niger Delta ministry seeks foreign direct investment from US

The Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), Senator Omotayo Alasoadura has reiterated the need to strengthen bilateral relations with the United States of America to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and explore avenues for diversification in the Niger Delta region and Nigeria at large.

The minister made this assertion at a summit with the theme “Economic Development, Investments and Local Governance Mission,” held in Houston-Texas recently.

He posited that the summit is aimed at forging international economic cooperation for investment, building institutional exchanges and exploring avenues for diversification of Nigeria’s economy hence an avenue to attract investors and investments from the USA into Nigeria’s economy.

According to him, “it will create an effective bilateral opportunity between private and public sectors of both nations.”

Speaking further, Senator Alasoadura gave a brief history of the ministry created in September 2008 to serve as the primary vehicle for the execution of government’s policies, plans and programmes for the rapid socio-economic development of the region.

He also highlighted the role of the ministry’s parastatal, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) whose mission is to facilitate rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful.

He, therefore, pointed out that the Nigerian government is determined to reposition the country, particularly the Niger Delta region, in terms of provision of infrastructures, for investment promotion, noting that the evidence in the presidential approval in 2020 for the establishment of InfraCo Plc, which is a world-class infrastructure development vehicle with combined debt and equity take-off capital.

The minister also stressed that with the strengthening of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) with an additional inflow from the government to the tune of US$2 billion since the initial take-off grant of US$1 billion in 2012 is all geared towards repositioning the region and Nigeria at large.

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