FG to fast-track strategies to ease doing business in Nigeria, Buhari assures

TCR NEWS
28 Jun 2016



FG to fast-track strategies to ease doing business in Nigeria, Buhari assures 


President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday reassured that the Federal Government would fast-track the implementation of strategies to ease doing business and attract more investors into Nigeria.


“We want to create jobs, and supporting manufacturing is one way to do it. As soon as we have stabilized our budget, I would personally be interested in the manufacturing sector, particularly in the generation
of essential raw materials,” the President said, while receiving Chief Global CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.


He also said the government was working at changing the structure of the Nigerian economy which has been battered by years of gross mismanagement of high revenue accrued from oil.


”We refused to save for the rainy day. Now the rain is beating us. No money, no savings, nothing. And we are thoroughly wet from the rains,” a statement by Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, quoted Buhari to have said, repeating his now favourite line.


Nigeria’s Central Bank had earlier this month relaxed a year long currency peg to the U.S. dollar, a policy it finally adopted in the midst of the plunge in oil prices which had caused a severe shortage of foreign currency, crippling most businesses in the country and by extension the economy.


The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had contracted for the first time in over a decade.


Nigeria, one of Africa’s top oil producer, has lost it position to Angola even as the Niger Delta Avengers militant group in the South-South region of the country sustain attacks on oil and gas
installations in the country.


Speaking at the State House, Abuja, while receiving the Chief Global CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, the President said Nigeria was paying the price for turning herself into a mono-economy, but assured that
the country would soon be able to feed herself, and even export, with the current emphasis placed on agriculture.


Unilever has been in Nigeria for 93 years and is considered one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the country. Unilever had invested. So far Unilever has invested N15 billion in Nigeria in the past three years.


CEO Polman noted that Unilever products are more “Nigerian than other Nigerian brands. Despite the economic downturn, there are opportunities to further advance our business here” adding that the “situation to invest and continue to invest here is very encouraging”.


Elizabeth Archibong


 


BUSINESS DAY

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