Under president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Nigeria has made significant progress in its investment portfolio including an inflow of over $1 billion in the automotive sector, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo has said.
Adebayo revealed this during his presentation at the PMB administration’s scorecard from 2015 till date in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that beyond attracting investments worth $1 billion and creating capacity to produce 400,000 units, the ministry commenced initiatives to support the widespread adoption of electric vehicles with the establishment of 3 solar powered charging stations in Lagos, Sokoto and Nsukka.
He expressed optimism that when the draft automotive bill is passed into law, the full potential of the sector will be realised, adding that
The minister also revealed that Nigeria’s first investment policy has been drafted and validated, and will be presented to the Federal Executive Council for approval soon.
“This strategic document, which will communicate to the world what our priorities, aims, commitments and expectations, is a landmark achievement for the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment and for Nigeria as an investment destination,” he said.
The minister said progress has been recorded with the development of backward integration activities, especially with sugar, tomato paste and other agricultural products.
“With sugar, we have seen the creation of refining capacity in excess of local demand, while we continue to increase the pace of growing sugarcane for processing. About 150,000hectares have been acquired and Mr President provided a further boost for the BIP by establishing and funding a program to irrigate 10,000hectares of sugarcane fields,” he said.
To boost small-scale industrialisation, he said six agro-processing facilities was established across the country, adding that efforts to boost the CTG value chain backward integration has been greatly enhanced by Executive Order 003 as military uniforms are now produced domestically.
Speaking of exports, he said a compounded annual growth rate of over 12 percent was recorded in the value of exports, adding that in Q4 2022, Nigeria achieved $1.4 billion in non oil export earnings and $4.8 billion in full year 2022.
“To sustain the momentum, we also launched the Zero-oil plan, Nigeria’s blueprint for non-oil export, which we expect will deliver a 5-year cumulative earnings of $150billion and lift 20 million citizens out of poverty; we have also started seeing the impact of the N50bn Export Expansion Fund Program,” he said.
He added that N231billion, in form of promissory notes was given to over 160 exporters in the period between 2017 and 2020, as part of the efforts to revive the Export Expansion Grant.
He said the FMITI played the leading role in creating an enabling environment for businesses to succeed in Nigeria, adding that its agencies implemented reforms to achieve this goal.
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He revealed that following the COVID-19 outbreak, the National Economic Sustainability Plan was developed which had the MSME survival fund as a key component which provided support for saving about half a million jobs, grants to over 80,000 businesses, support for almost 400,000 artisans and transporters and free registration of businesses for 250,000 companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
In addition, he said the FMITI issued 5,571 Acceptance Certificates to over 2,600 companies which allows them claim the relevant tax relief when computing their Companies Income Tax, issued over 130 Production Day Certificates which is a key step in the application for the Pioneer Status Incentive.
“Since 2016, we have granted over 4,000 Export Permit Certificates which allows oil and gas companies export petroleum products. We estimate that the total associated Free-on Board value of oil and gas exports amounts to about $470billion; we have granted over 18,000 patents to companies; which protects their intellectual property and enables commercialisation of innovation,” he said.
Speaking on investment promotion and improving the ease of doing business, the minister highlighted some reforms such as the repeal and re-enactment of the Companies Allied Matters Act (CAMA) which now provides a robust framework for reforming identified drawbacks, reduction in the time and cost of registering businesses and providing data to improve investments which caused significant growth in FDI over the last four years.
In his address, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, expressed concerns on the increasing wave of fake news and disinformation, particularly in the social media space, which he said can constitute a potent threat to the upcoming elections,
He warned the purveyors of fake news and disinformation to desist from such act, noting that the government has a range of options to checkmate the use of fake news and disinformation.
