Nigeria Makes N6.8trn From Investments

Vice-President Namadi Sambo said Nigeria earned N6.8 trillion from Local and Foreign Direct Investments in recent times.

Sambo disclosed this last Friday in London, at an interactive forum with a cross-section of Nigerians resident in UK.

“Our investment climate reform programme has helped to attract over N6.8 trillion from Local and Foreign Direct Investment commitments in recent times. “Nigeria has become the preferred destination for investment in Africa,” he added.

Sambo said that the Federal Government had initiated measures to boost investment through various reforms in the agriculture, aviation, petroleum and transport sectors, among others.

He stressed that Nigeria had been included in the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index, adding that the move had significantly increased investors’ confidence in the nation’s economy.

Besides, Sambo said that Nigeria’s GDP had grown by 7.1 per cent, while inflation in the country had dropped from 12.9 per cent in June to 11.7 per cent in August.

The vice-president said that three out of 10 ongoing power projects were already contributing electricity to the national grid, adding that the power situation in the country had improved with the rehabilitation of existing power infrastructure, which had produced up to 1,000 megawatts of additional electricity.

He urged Nigerians living abroad to key into the government’s development agenda, saying that a 100-million-dollar bond would be put in place for them to access.

In his remark, the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (CANUK), Mr Bimbo Roberts, re-echoed the call for the establishment of a Diaspora Commission.

He stressed that Nigerian professionals in the UK were willing to contribute their own quota to the nation’s development, adding, however, that they would need a platform to operate.

Nigeria’s High Commissioner to UK, Dr Dalhatu Tafida, said that the commission, through CANUK, had been able to reach out to all the Nigerian associations in UK.

The envoy also said that the government’s economic reforms had made Nigeria a choice investment destination, while stimulating the interest of investors in UK.