The Federal Government has called on the U.S. to support Nigeria to attract more investors into the country. Hajiya Aisha Abubakar, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, made the call when the officials of Nigerian- American Chamber of Commerce paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja on Friday.
“America is a world leader in terms of investment and we will need your support in assuring investors that Nigeria is open and safe for business,’’ she said. Abubakar said there has been a lot of improvement in the relationship between the two countries in the last one year.
She added that the country has put in place strategies to improve on its ranking on doing business. “I thank you for the support in the area of doing business because as a result the easy of doing business committee has been constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari,’’ Abubakar said. She thanked the group for inviting and sensitising the ministry on the forthcoming U.S.-Nigeria Finance conference coming up in October. Abubakar appealed to the chamber to make available details of the investment that came in following the last conference in 2015, the number that is still to come and those being negotiated.
In his speech, Alan Tousignant, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy said the two countries have good relationship on trade and investment. Tousignant said although 2016 has been a difficult year for Nigeria’s economy the government was introducing measures to stabilise the situation. He said the two countries were striving to see what they could do to promote investment. Tousignant said the forthcoming conference would provide an opportunity for the government to attract more investment into the country. He said the U.S. government was happy to hear that Nigeria had taken steps to improve its world ranking on the easy of doing business.
He called for more flexibility in the foreign exchange policy. “Those areas are very important to investors because those are the first things they ask. They want to know how easy it is to do business in Nigeria. Sheriff Balogun, President, Nigerian- American Chamber of Commerce, Kaduna State Chapter, said the visit was to seek further collaboration with the ministry. Balogun said the visit was in connection with the forthcoming conference of the Small and Medium Enterprises adding that the one held in 2015 has increased the two countries’ trade relationship. He said various financial institutions would be at the conference and called on Nigerians to make use of the opportunity. “The conference will bring to Nigeria investors and local companies opportunities to meet up with financial institutions to boost their investment,’’ Balogun said.
(NAN)
