Business
SMEDAN Wants D-8 Investors To Explore Nigeria’s Agric Sector
The Director-General of the Small and Medium-Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)Alhaji Muhammed Nadada, has called on investors from developing countries (D-8) to explore Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
Nadada made the appeal in Abuja,yesterday at the closing of the two-day third D-8 Working Group Meeting, with the theme: “Promoting International Trade Through SME Development’’.
Members of the D-8, a group of eight developing nations founded in 1997 to foster economic cooperation, are Nigeria, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Egypt.
According to Nadada, agriculture is one area where Nigeria has comparative and competitive advantages which should be fully tapped.
He said that the Nigerian government had provided a 100 per cent capital allowance as incentive for companies in the agro-allied business.
The director-general said that every sector of the nation’s economy needed foreign investment, adding that Small and Medium-Enterprises (SMEs) were crucial to global economic development.
“Companies in the agro-allied business do not have their capital allowance restricted.
“The SMEs sub-sector provides the platform for opening the D-8 countries to global competitiveness and prosperity requires elevating them to economically advanced nations.
“The challenge is for D-8 countries to collaborate and, based on competitiveness and comparative advantage, help each other to develop SMEs, which will provide the platform for global competitiveness,’’ the director-general said.
Nadada gave the assurance that SMEDAN would continue to support the development of SMEs for sustainable economic growth and development.
Also speaking, the Alhaji Mustafa Bello, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), said that the nation’s economy had grown by 7.36 per cent.
He said that Nigeria was the world’s third fastest growing economy, “which makes it one of the most viable nations to invest in despite the challenges’’ it was facing.
“Nigeria has a stable macro-economic and political environment and a cost effective human resources.
“It has a large internal market and a robust youth population of about 60 per cent,’’ Bello, who was represented by Mr Byron Ifeanyi of the One Stop Investment Centre (OSIC) in the NIPC, said.
He said that there were 36 strategic mineral resource endowments in the country.
According to him, OSIC provides prompt, efficient and transparent services and coordinates investment with about 26 government parastatal agencies.
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