Nigeria ready for business, Emefiele tells investors

Mr Godwin Emefiele The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured investors and the international community that the country having gone thro...

Mr Godwin Emefiele

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured investors and the international community that the country having gone through a successful election, was ready for investments.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, on Friday night in Washington DC, held an informal meeting with potential investors where he enticed them with the Nigerian success stories, especially in agriculture.

Emefiele said that the Anchor Borrowers Programme, which targets local farmers was one of the major achievements of the bank under its development interventions.

“As at December 2018, a total sum of N178.48 billion had been disbursed through 19 participating financial institutions to 902,518 farmers.

“During the period, over 2.8 million and 8.4 million direct and indirect jobs were created under the Anchor Borrowers Programme,” he said.

On the country’s foreign exchange policy, Emefiele said that the focus had always been to ensure price stability.

He highlighted some of the foreign exchange reforms undertaken by the bank, which included the ban of the 41 items, the establishment of the investor’s and export’s window and the SME Window of the foreign exchange market.

According to him, this resulted in a stable exchange rate, foreign exchange liquidity, vibrancy in the capital market, improved supply of foreign exchange supply with a positive impact on GDP growth.

Emefiele said also that Nigeria, through its financial inclusion strategy had recorded a lot of progress in giving its adult population access to a broad range of formal financial services at an affordable cost.

According to him, statistics show that in Nigeria today, the number of adult with access to financial services has grown from 58.4 per cent in 2016 to 63.2 per cent in 2018.

“A lot of work has been done and indeed a lot of work needs to be done but in the midst of this, we are saying that Nigeria is open for business and foreign investors.

“As the monetary and fiscal authority continue to work tirelessly to boost our economy, it is important to portray some of Nigeria’s enduring strength which offers a significant reward for current and prospective foreign investors.

“I want you to know that irrespective of the impact of the recession, Nigeria’s economy remains the largest in Africa by the size of its GDP with diversified opportunities across different sectors.

“These sectors include ICT, manufacturing, solid minerals, trade and agriculture,” he said.

Emefiele assured potential investors of the safety of their investments should they choose to take a leap of faith and make a mutually beneficial investment in the country.