Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, said that Nigeria had moved from its 185th place to 131st in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Ranking.
He said the feat was achieved as a result of new initiatives and policies such as the One Stop Investment Centre (OSIC) housed by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), as well as initiatives for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) implemented by the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in driving the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP).
The Minister, who spoke at the Nigeria-Japan Business Forum holding in Japan between January 23 and 27, reassured prospective investors that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari was further prepared to fine-tune policy initiatives towards tackling business constraints that would mobilise quality investments, both domestic and foreign, into the non-oil sector in line with the objectives for maximizing opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Nigeria-Japan Business Forum is being organised by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Japan in collaboration with relevant agencies and it is taking place in the city of Tokyo, Japan.
The Forum which is themed “Harnessing of Cross-Border Technological Advancement as a Catalyst for Achieving Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria” is among other things, intended to showcase the limitless business opportunities that abounds between the countries.
Prince Agba said Nigeria had great investment potential with the large market size based on its population and the willingness of the government to create the enabling environment that would attract the much-needed Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria.
He informed thevbusiness community that Nigeria was Africa’s number one leading economy; and that the government of Nigeria, in partnership with the private sector, was taking all necessary measures to improve the country’s business environment.
Prince Agba noted that the Forum was taking place against the background of the global innovation and technology advancement and at a time when governments of developed and developing countries were making conscious efforts at exploring avenues for normalizing cross-border engagements in the aftermath of the deleterious COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the Forum was following the recent successful 8th Edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held in Tunis from August 25 – 28, 2022, which was focused on improving business opportunities and investment in Africa under the aegis of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO).
He noted: “This Forum will, no doubt, consummate on the outcomes of the Summit towards consolidating and discovering new opportunities in the context of Nigeria-Japan’s 60 years of friendship and bilateral diplomacy/economic cooperation celebrated in 2020.”
He recalled that Nigeria and Japan had been cooperating in the areas of agriculture, trade, investment, technical aids and grants as evident by the presence of Japanese Officials and businessmen in Nigeria.
“Businesses between both countries crisscross Nigeria’s exportation of agricultural and petrochemical products to Japan and importation from Japan, products such as automotive, ICT, services and other industrial goods.
“The volume of trade between both countries hovers around $1 billion annually.
“On the bilateral level, the Japanese government under the auspices of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has been providing technical cooperation including MEXT/Monbukagakusho Scholarship programmes at Masters and Ph.D levels and other forms of grant aids to promote economic and social development in Nigeria, thus culminating into reduction of social tension, poverty reduction, empowerment and skill and technology transfer,” the Minister said.
He noted that Nigeria had been one of the important destinations for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Africa.
According to him: “In 2020, it was the 4th host economy for FDI in the continent according to the World Investment Report 2021. FDI inflows to Nigeria totalled $2.4 billion, showing a 3.5% increase compared to $2.3 billion recorded in 2019. The 33% drop in the average price of crude oil in 2020 coupled with low demand and supply-side constraints restricted FDI inflows into Nigeria in the first half of 2020.
“Despite the pandemic, the long-term policy for diversification of FDI has been noted to have made some impact.”
Agba stated that “An important Greenfield investment ($66 million) that is significant in the non-oil economy is the construction of a manufacturing facility in the Lekki Free Trade Zone by Ariel Foods (Kenya).
“There was also another investment by the China Communications Construction Company that provided an initial $221 million equity injection in the Lekki Deep Sea Port, out of a planned total investment by Multichoice Group (South Africa).
“A commendable milestone is the massive local investment by the Dangote Group in the development of a 3 million metric tons of Urea Fertilizer plant annually, the World’s largest Single Train Refinery and Petrochemical Complex with a capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, besides other railway infrastructural projects across the country.”
He disclosed that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari was bent on consolidating on the gains of the Economic Sustainability Plan and the need to make Nigeria attractive and lucrative for prospective investors to bring capital, skills and business trade into the country.
“Nigeria developed and commenced the implementation of a National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025. The Plan was designed to facilitate public, private, domestic, as well as, foreign investments in developing productive capacities and enhancing our international competitiveness.
“The new Plan is the successor to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), 2017 – 2020, which elapsed in December 2020.”
Agba highlighted the huge investment requirements and potential in the Nigerian transport sector, which he said had played a key role in contributing to the nation’s GDP.
“The estimated public investment of the sector outlined by the National Development Plan is N7.73 trillion (US$17.6 billion) with financing options available to the government through the N100 billion (US$227.1 million) capital market Sukuk Bonds for roads; and about N40 billion (US$90.8 million) set aside by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Infrastructural Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCo) in collaboration with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) for road infrastructure. Others include the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund Portfolio with the sum of US$321 million for roads including the 2nd Niger bridge and the Pension Fund.
“Despite the above, there is no gainsaying the fact that the investment requirement is not limited to these sectors, as more areas with potentials for impressive returns abound in the economy. Though the Nigerian business environment has been affected by several challenges that made business operations costly and inefficient, the Nigerian government is not leaving any stone unturned, as it has put in place mechanisms to check some of the challenges.
“Prominent among these efforts are streamlined administrative processes; continuous improvement in security; access to land and finances; and the fight against corruption. Other efforts include reforms for an efficient judicial system, streamlining processes for access to foreign exchange; and improved drive for industrialisation, through the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) for a modernised infrastructure stock over the next 30 years.”
He appealed to multilateral agencies to help fund the National Development Plan, saying the scale of funding and technical support required to implement Nigeria’s National Development Plan 2021 – 2025 was enormous and far beyond the scope of individual governments and multilateral funding agencies.
“Thus, Nigeria is using this unique Forum, to canvass for private sector funding and technical know-how from Japan to fill this funding gap and to operationalize the policies and actions outlined in the Plan.
“Also, Nigeria is prepared to harness from the high technology driven initiative of Japan to achieve the objectives of the Development Plan.
“Let me state that Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is poised to spurring and nurturing domestic investment as well as attracting Foreign Direct Investment towards economic development and sustainability.
“I am optimistic that this Forum will achieve its objective of connecting Nigeria and Japan towards the consolidation of our economic relationship, especially in deepening cooperation geared towards technological advancement.”
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