'HOW NIGERIA CAN ATTRACT GENUINE INVESTORS'

By NBF News

Ngozi-Obi
Miffed by the epileptic performance of most industries in Nigeria which has resulted in unemployment, low GDP, and dearth of locally manufactured goods, Mayor Godwin Ngozi-Obi, CEO) Winnarine Transnational, Ikeja, Lagos has blamed absence of genuine core investors in Nigerian economy for the short comings.

According to him, most of the industrialists posing as foreign investors are nothing but mere traders who just bring finished and semi finished foreign goods into the country, take advantage of our devalued Naira and make their home country richer.

He speaks further
Problem with Nigerian investors
The foreign investors that Nigeria got overtime are only traders who take away our money. Their pattern of investment does not even favour our own productivity nor enhance our Gross National Product (GNP). This is because they import goods from their own country or from their sister company where they have interest, thus leaving the middlemen and contractors doing nothing. In most cases this often resulted in capital flight, which is not doing the country any good.

You would also notice that some of these industries are not even quoted in our stock exchange. The implication is that we do not have details about their financial status and their investment in Nigeria economy.

What is the implication on Nigeria economy?
Those masquerading, as foreign investors are not really investors but mere traders. They are here because of their selfish goals, which is to plunder our economy thus leaving us worse off.

I want the Federal Government in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade and Investment to go out there and woo investors so that they can come down here to set up factories in virgin land. ' Let them create new town and localities with the enabling environment and such communities will become new industrial center where Nigeria teeming youths would work. By so doing, unemployment would be reduced to the barest minimum.

Dearth of auto industries
You'll recall that in the 70s, auto plants were established in different part of the country. ANAMCO in Enugu, Peugot plant in Kaduna and Volkswagen of Nigeria in Lagos, but it is sad to mention today that most of those auto plants have either collapsed or underperforming.

What is affecting them is our foreign policy especially in the area of importation of raw materials, which the western countries have strangulated by destroying our naira through the International Monetary Funds (IMF).

The naira is being devalued because of non-availability of industries to create favourable balance of trade.

If you look at the geographical map of Nigeria, you will find out that Nigeria has abundant mineral resources that are scattered all over the country but they are hardly exploited. For instance Nigeria has large deposit of bitumen, yet the country continues to import bitumen for road construction and this affects our foreign reserve because our hard currency and foreign reserves are depleted for importation.