President Bola Tinubu, has told world leaders that they can only ignore Nigeria’s economic potential to their own peril. Tinubu, while speaking to some business leaders at the sidelines of the ongoing Summit for New Global Financing Pact, said, “We are ready for business, prepared to welcome investments.”
Tinubu agreed with other leaders that the world needed a new financing pact that would ensure the reduction in the impacts of various natural happening of the recent past and put the world back on its footings. He said the reforms his government has embarked upon starting with removal of fuel subsidy and streamlining of exchange rate, would be sustained for a more competitive economy that would attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country, and therefore, urged foreign investors to take advantage of opportunities in Nigeria. In a release issued by his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Mr Dele Alake, told the EBRD president, that, “We are challenged in terms of reforms, and we have taken the largest elephant out of the room with removal of fuel subsidy, and multiple exchange rates are equally gone. We are determined to open up the economy for business. Consider us a stakeholder in the Bank.”
According to him, Nigeria’s economy was too large and potent to be ignored, adding: “Ignoring Nigeria will be a peril to the universe.”
On his part, Renaud-Basso said it would be a mistake for the development bank not to invest in Nigeria, after considering six potential economies for investment, explaining also that focus would be on the private sector, especially Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
At a separate meeting, he assured the delegation of AfreximBank Executives that the federal government would continue to stimulate the economy with policies that support investments in areas of Nigeria’s competitive advantage, particularly agriculture.
“We need reforms for national survival,” he said, noting that it would take boldness and courage to reposition the economy, calling for more collaboration to solidify the economy.
“We must stimulate recovery for the growth and prosperity of our people, which will not be far away. Nigeria is ready for global business and our reform is total. Nigeria is blessed with human and material resources,” President Tinubu told the delegation, who had earlier listed areas of interventions to buoy the economy, like infrastructure, health, energy and agriculture.