FG has attracted $30b foreign direct investments so far, minister reveals

• To create national jobs centre, targets 10m Nigerians

Nigeria has secured about $30 billion Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). According to the government, the FDIs, which are in the form of equipment and investments in manufacturing, are already in the country.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, who disclosed this yesterday at a briefing organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation in Abuja, stated that Nigeria has investments coming from different countries, which would bring about job opportunities and economic growth.

She observed that Nigeria’s bilateral engagements have been fruitful and have led to significant investment commitments and partnership opportunities for Nigerian trade, adding that a notable example is the G20 Summit in India, where a $14 billion worth of FDI inflow to Nigeria was announced and being actualised.

The minister noted that since then, the Confederation of Indian Industries have been visiting Nigeria to further explore identified investment opportunities, stressing that these engagements with India, Germany, Netherlands, UAE, South Africa and others have opened up avenues for investment and the establishment of joint regulatory protocols.

Uzoka-Anite also revealed that the Nigerian Bottling Company has invested $1.3 billion over the last 10 years and plans to invest another $1 billion over the next five years while Unilever is planning to launch new product categories in the country this year.

She noted that to deepen the investment drive, the Federal Government would establish a Diaspora Investment Initiative, disclosing that it was partnering with the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and would soon launch the Diaspora Fund.

She noted that the Federal Government is creating a national job centre to match available vacancies in industries and businesses with available talent pool.

According to the minister, the job centre would train and equip over 10 million hard working Nigerians with skills and empower them to be job-ready under the Skill-UP Artisans programme (SUPA) led by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).

The minister, who noted that Nigeria has about 70 million artisans, explained that the programme would empower artisans with tech-enabled skills training, licensing, access to essential toolkits, and promoting industry-standard excellence.

She said: “SUPA addresses the skills deficiency among artisans and standardises artisanal practice. The programme ensures the availability of a skilled workforce for domestic industries, thereby reducing labour import dependency. Over a two-year period, the programme aims to empower 10 million hard-working Nigerians, and reflects the government’s commitment to promoting economic development and improving citizens’ standard of living and job creation.”

Uzoka-Anite said the Federal Government was engaging with different international communities and organisations to take up the talents.

“We are in the process of signing MoU with different countries who are interested in the skills available in Nigeria, especially countries like the U.S., Canada, Germany and UAE. Once the arrangements are concluded within the next couple of months, government will open the portal for those who have the talents to apply,” she added.

She further noted that the government was removing all bottlenecks hampering exports in the country, observing that for Nigeria to be globally competitive, it must expand access to the global market.

According to her, the easiest way to improve ease of doing business is to automate, adding that the trade facilitation committee was working to remove all the bottlenecks affecting export and to automate export permit process.

“Under the Presidential Council, we are implementing several initiatives to reform the commodity trading landscape and also NCX’s operations and performance. These reforms will create a future where the hard work of farmers and miners translates into equitable opportunities in national and international markets, contribute to minimising food inflation, enhance solid mineral and agricultural production and exports, boost private sector investment in the agricultural value chain and foster economic empowerment among small hold farmers and miners.

“In furtherance of ensuring this global competitiveness, we are currently negotiating our accession into the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement – which is posited to be the largest free trade area in the world, with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion and access to a market of over 1.3 billion people spread across 54 member states of the African Union. The successful implementation of the AFCFTA is expected to lead to diversification of exports, improved market access, enhanced trade opportunities and increased FDI.

“Recently, we signed an MOU on Enhanced Trade in Partnership (ETIP) with the United Kingdom, where we have extensively discussed the issue of joint regulatory protocols. This has culminated in the signing of the Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement. This agreement facilitates smoother trade processes, allowing Nigerian businesses to export more goods to the UK. It also provides capacity building and sensitisation for Nigerian exporters on how to benefit from the UK Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which enables Nigerian exporters to export up to 3000 different agricultural products to the UK with beneficial terms. The partnership also encourages UK investors to explore Nigeria’s most promising sectors, working towards increasing reciprocal FDI,” she added.