Nigeria’s finance Minister and Coordinating minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday that insecurity in the country, especially in the North-East, would have no significant impact on this year’s growth projections for the economy, as against last year.
Speaking at the pre-event media conference for the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF) which officially begins in Abuja on Wednesday, Okonjo-Iwealla said investment interests in the country have rather heightened by strong macro-economic fundamentals.
Nigeria has projected a 6.75 % in GDP growth this year, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects even higher growth of around 7.2 % for the country.
“We are still expecting to be in this neighbourhood and the country is expected to grow robustly.
“We have seen that investors are asking questions about coming to invest. What I want to tell you is that investors are looking at the underlying strength of the economy, and that is why they are coming in large numbers and they are saying we are still willing to invest in this country inspite of the challenges’.
“Last year, as a result of the attacks in the North-East of the country and the floods, we lost 1/2 percent point GDP growth.
“This year, we are looking at the trend; we have not seen that kind of impact yet. But we will be watching it and we are doing all we can to make sure that we minimise this,” the minister told the the conference she jointly addressed with Elsie Kanza, Director and Head of Africa, WEF.
She said government priorities would be to showcase the sources of this growth, which especially house the country’s strength, while expecting investors to get aroused the more.
“We see opportunities in agriculture, manufacturing, housing, creative industry etc.” She added that Nigeria has almost 33 unexploited natural resources which would also be showcased.
This year’s WEF, taking place under the theme, “Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs”, will bring together over 1,000 leaders from across politics, business and civil society. They include Premier Li Keqiang of China and eleven African heads of state and government, as well as President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and senior members of the Nigerian government.
Okonjo-Iwealla said Nigeria has had great success in growing its economy at 7% per annum, but that what matters is the quality of growth which is what will be discussed at this forum.
“We will talk about growth that creates jobs, how to protect those at the bottom end of the ladder with measures that meet the basic needs of health, education and security, so that everyone can share in the benefits of the growth.
“It means focusing on skills for our children to compete in a global environment, quality public schools, better and efficient government and services being delivered to the people”.
She observed that it was an honour for Nigeria to be hosting WEF, especially at this time that it is the largest economy in Africa, with a GDP of $510 billion; and 76% of the ECOWAS Economy; 30% of sub Saharan African and 21% of the continent’s economy.
“It is very meaningful that we have this forum in Nigeria to look at the success and frustrations of the growth, with attendant inequalities.
“Once we get our girls back and strengthen security, we must also focus on the underlying issues which confront not only Africa, but the globe of inequality and inclusive growth so that we can solve the problem and have sustainable growth. Inequality is a global, African and Nigerian problem.
She raised optimism that several initiatives which would be launched at the WEF would help Nigeria and Africa solve some of these challenges, including Grow Africa Initiative which is supposed to help agriculture and small holders across the continent and it has been able to raise about $7 billion in investments about half or more than half of which will be coming to Nigeria.
According to her, a healthcare initiative designed to strengthen access to healthcare and that Nigeria would benefit from skills initiative is being launched at the event.
