Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has reassured investors that Nigeria is a secure investment destination.
Edun gave the assurance on Wednesday at the Nigeria Investment Forum held at the ongoing World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington, D.C., United States.
He noted that efforts were being made to maintain fiscal congruence, adding that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration is ramping up its efforts to diversify and stabilise the economy.
The minister also identified optimising assets as another way to bridge the budget gap.
“That’s one of the reasons for the new team at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and their mandate is to increase production and save costs.
“We need to ensure that we maintain fiscal congruence; the mandate of NNPCL is to increase production and save costs. We are also diversifying the economy.
“We are committed to stabilising the economy so that the private sector will find it attractive to invest.
“Optimisation of assets is another route to closing the gap in the budget; the government believes in the sanctity of contracts,” Edun said.
He stressed that the President Tinubu’s administration had implemented foundational reforms that were now yielding results, with the country’s economy expanding.
“Our goal is not just to maintain this momentum but to accelerate it. We are targeting seven per cent annual growth, and we believe the policies we have implemented have laid the groundwork to achieve this,” Edun said.
He added that the macroeconomic stability was gradually returning as reflected in narrowing budget deficits, improved trade balance, and a stabilising exchange rate.
Edun stated that the government is now focusing on specific sectoral growth, noting that agriculture tops the government’s agenda by focusing on the entire value chain to improve food security and increase productivity.
“We aim to close the food supply gap, not by importing more, but by enabling domestic producers to scale up and innovate,” he said.
According to Edun, about 90,000 km of fibre optic cable to enhance digital connectivity have been rolled out while government is empowering Nigeria’s youth and tech entrepreneurs.
He said an additional 4,000km of roads have been tendered for private sector participation, with the first 1,000km already signed off for delivery.
At the forum, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, said that the difficult reforms put in place have begun to yield fruits, and the country able to stabilise the macroeconomy.
Cardoso added that the country was not relenting on its course, despite its period of crisis in the past 18 months.
He said efforts were all geared towards building confidence and trust.
“The difficult reforms undertaken have begun to bear fruit. We have been able to stabilise the microeconomy. Fitch has upgraded us more recently; no doubt, we are in a period of heightened uncertainty.
“We have, for the past 18 months, been in a period of crisis, and our response to that period is to roll up our sleeves and ensure we build a stronger economy with respect to resilience and capacity for people and institutions.
“This is all about building confidence and trust and moving in a direction of more confidence and hope; if we continue in this direction, we will achieve our set goals,” he said.
