November 12, (THEWILL) -The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, has invited foreign investors to come over and invest in Nigeria.
Emefiele assured the investing community that CBN will continue to monitor progress and respond promptly and flexibly to support economic recovery from COVID-19.
“Nigeria, as a leader in Africa, is ready for Business. So we invite you, our foreign brethren in the investor community, to come over to Nigeria.
“If you think about investing in Africa… Africa holds the best frontier for development in the world today, and your yield from investments today is the highest in Africa.
“People are saying Nigeria should take the lead. I am saying to you the foreign investors if you think about Africa for the opportunity and investment, you don’t have a choice you will have to look at Nigeria.
“Nigeria has the largest economy and population in Africa, and it is being projected to be the third largest population in the world by 2050 — if you do think about investing in Africa — join us in developing Nigeria and Africa continent”, the CBN governor said at the France-Nigeria security and economic summit in Paris, France on Wednesday.
Emefiele said confidence in the Nigerian business environment is growing due to sustained policy, adding that overall business confidence index is projected at 37.7 index points in November 2021 and 57.6 index points by mid-2022.
He said Nigeria’s external reserves grew to nearly $41.5 billion in September.
The CBN governor further disclosed that average foreign exchange market turnover at investors and exporters (I&E) window rose to a record $157.4 in the third quarter of 2021.
He told the international community that the launch of the eNaira will improve the conduct of monetary policy in Nigeria, reduce transaction costs and increase financial inclusion in the medium to long term.
He said the quick recovery from the recession was due to targeted interventions in the critical sectors of the economy, monetary and exchange rate policies to stabilize exchange rate, the implementation of the economic sustainability plan, and the nationwide improvement in vaccine administration and coverage.
The CBN governor highlighted the interventions of the apex bank, including creation of a N1 trillion facility in loans to boost local manufacturing and production across critical sectors; establishment of InfraCo PLC; launch of eNaira; N100 billion intervention fund in loans to support pharmaceutical companies and healthcare practitioners and disbursement of N100 billion target credit facility for affected households and small-scale enterprises.
He bragged that “impact of our policy measures helped to prevent larger GDP contractions in 2020, as projected by analysts.”
Emefiele said unfolding developments continue to indicate that the Nigerian economy will achieve strong growth while current inflation trends remain on track towards their desired levels.
He also said that the country’s inflation which was “as high as 18.17% during the pandemic” and is “about 16.6% today” should be able to moderate to about “15.35% by December 2021 and further down to about 14.91% by February 2022.”
Speaking on FG’s diversification plan, Emefiele said that the present administration is providing access for players in the manufacturing industry to access loans with single interest.
“Before the president came on board in 2015, a couple of our textile industries, some of our manufacturing industries due to certain challenges they faced in the economy closed down.
“We are now looking forward to making sure that we reposition and reopen these industries again.
“We are making granting of credit easy for these industries so that they can embrace and attract cheap credit, long term credit and I can say in a long time in the history of the financial system in Nigeria, manufacturing sectors can access credit at single digit interest rate of no more than 9%”, he added.
The CBN governor said the Dangote refinery would help conserve foreign exchange, save the cost of logistics and transportation — and the price of petroleum products in Nigeria can be more competitive and more affordable for Nigerians.
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