Nigeria requires bold reforms to boost investment, says NIPC

Nigeria is in dire need of bold, coherent policies as well as deep economic reforms to reverse the current decline of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has advised.

It also said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an investment decline of between 40 to 50 per cent is expected in the 2020/2021 fiscal year.

NIPC Executive Secretary, Yewande Sadiku, said this in Abuja while addressing the industry correspondents on the need to boost investment inflows.

In a presentation entitled, ‘Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Investment in Nigeria’, Sadiku highlighted the damage the pandemic has had on global economic growth and FDI.

She said: “Globally, FDI has been falling since 2015 even as Nigeria’s FDI has remained under pressure before the pandemic.’’

Sadiku explained that falling investment was expected to be worse than the experience of the 2008 financial crisis due to the global challenge caused by COVID-19.

She revealed that FDI stagnated during the COVID-19 lockdown because there was a shutdown of the implementation of ongoing projects. She added that there were also tightening margins.