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The Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi Lamido has warned government authorities to reduce unnecessary bureaucracies and lackadaisical attitude to enable the country attract the much needed foreign investments.
Lamido gave the advice on Saturday in Washington DC at the US-Nigeria Investment summit, held at the Embassy of Nigeria. Most of the Nigerian authorities scheduled to attend the event failed to show up and according to him, this does not show seriousness on the part of those running the economy in dire need of investments.
The 2018 US-Nigeria investment summit tagged “Nigeria is Open for Business” was to showcase some of the economically viable investment opportunities in Nigeria.
The objective was on getting the much needed private capital to achieve the investment projects listed in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
Some of the minsters billed to take part in the forum are the Ministers of Trade and Investment, Finance, Transportation, Agriculture, Science and Technology and also the Minister of state for Petroleum, among others.
Only the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi attended the meeting.
Frowning at the poor attendance of the authorities and late start of the meeting, Sanusi said that Nigeria had a strong economy and market, which ordinarily should position it as an investment hub in Africa, yet many investors shy away from the country due to the attitude of government officials.
“Nigeria maybe the biggest economy, but an investor may decide that rather than go through the hassle of investing say 500 million dollars in Nigeria, he may decide to invest 100 million dollars each in Ghana, Cote ivoire South Africa, Rwanda.
“I’ll give you a simple example, we had a meeting today with investors. We were supposed to start at 10 am.
“So I came in early, and I was taken to the Nigerian ambassador’s office to sit down, while investors we’re waiting for me outside. That is not how you attract investors.
“Also we had a list of top Nigerians that were to attend the meeting, like the Vice President and some Ministers. Some of these ministers we’re in town but they didn’t come.
” You (Nigeria) invite US Commerce Secretary, some top investors and your Ministers are in Washington and they do not come to talk to the investors about Nigeria? that is not done.
“I bet you that if the Rwandan embassy had this kind of forum, President Kagame himself will be there telling people to come to his country, ” He said.
The Emir maintained that the way the country is being packaged and marketed would, obviously, determine how seriously investors take the government.
“There is absolutely no reason why the Nigerian embassy in the US will organise ‘Nigeria is open for business’ forum, with Nigerian ministers and some governors in town and not is here to meet these investors.
“And there is no reason to start one hour late or that our public address systems should not be working.
“This is the first point of entry for these investors. They haven’t even come to Nigeria and this is their experience already.
“He may say that if I’m having this experience in DC, what will happen when I go to Abuja or Kano? How do I get to see the governor? Will I wait 10 hours?
“And for these kind of people (investors) in DC, they had other heads of states to meet, World Bank to meet and an hour is a lot of time for them to wait for you.
“So I think we need to look at those kind of things that investors look at and have a very honest conversation, sector by sector, region by region, state by state, what do we need to do to make those areas attractive, ” He said.
Meanwhile, the investors showed interest in investing in the country’s agriculture, mining and technology sector and not just oil.
Sanusi said Nigeria had the opportunity of attracting foreign investors in areas that would help diversify the economy if they behave more professionally.
At the event, Founder of Oriental Energy, Mohammed Indimi pledged to continue to expand his investments in Nigeria and also encourage his friends both home and abroad.
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Washington DC.
