The Canadian government has urged Nigeria to establish favorable policies to encourage investment in the country’s mining and agriculture sectors. Mr. Teshome Nkrumah, Canada’s Senior Trade Commissioner, announced during a Nigerian-Canadian Business Association (NCBA) roundtable in Lagos titled “Creating Opportunities for Fresh Foreign Direct Investment into the Nigerian Economy.” Nkrumah, also the Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, claims that bilateral investments between the two nations totaled over 1.6 billion dollars, with Canada profiting the most with a 1.2 billion dollar influx.
He remarked that as Canada stood to gain more from the ties, this should serve as notice to put the necessary institutions, framework, and enabling environment in place to enhance trade. Nkrumah went on to say that Canada’s mining investments in Nigeria, totaling $100 million, demonstrated that the government was wary and hesitant to participate in the mining industry. He said that the Canadian government is cautious and endeavors to take advantage of the potential provided by Nigeria’s booming agricultural industry, which generates annual exports of agricultural goods worth more than $82 billion.
Nigeria needs to outline what denotes a value-added agreement.
According to him, investments from Canada in the agriculture sector in Nigeria, which is one-quarter of the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria, suggest that there are great prospects yet to be tapped in the nation. Nkrumah stressed the necessity for Nigeria to emplace a framework to guide and protect investors and maintain the influx of investment in the nation. He added that a similar accord was discussed between both nations in 2013 and signed in 2014, although Nigeria eventually failed to ratify the pact.
Consequently, when the agreement framework was reintroduced in the first quarter of 2022, Nigeria continued to deny the deal, stressing the need for enticing investments that would substantially contribute to the country’s economy. Nkrumah contends that Nigeria needs to outline what denotes a value-added agreement. He went on to explain that the Canadian government’s appropriate grasp and orderly structure of the agricultural value chain have positioned the agriculture sector as a crucial industry in the nation.
Private sector has a part in attracting investments to the county.
While acknowledging that Nigeria has 28 minerals in exportable amounts, he argues that there is a compelling need to organize and reduce the risk of transacting and addressing foreign currency concerns, finance issues, and macroeconomic issues of insecurity. Canada-based investors will recognize the impression that doing business in Nigeria is not only lucrative but also generally secure, owing to these factors. Mrs. Obaro, president of the Nigerian-Canadian Business Association, recently discussed the youth bulge in the Nigerian labor market, pointing out that this phenomenon is also present in many other developing nations.
However, she argued that the economy cannot support these jobs or even offer a decent quality of life and alleviate poverty. Mrs. Obaro emphasizes that the private sector has an important part to play in fostering a friendly climate for attracting private investments within the country and abroad. She reiterated the importance of these investments in achieving long-term, widespread economic growth. Foreign private capital flows, such as bank lending, direct investment, and portfolio investment, have the potential to elevate the country’s income level from low to medium or high class.
A nation can accelerate expansion by drawing on sources of capital.
By improving the effectiveness of a nation’s investments in its own development, the nation as a whole can accelerate its pace of economic expansion and boost its overall level of productivity by drawing on sources of capital that were not previously used. Mrs. Obaro reaffirmed the objective of the chamber, which is to foster an environment that is friendly to business in order to safeguard the interests of investors on both the local and international levels.
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