THIS DAY

Nigeria Recorded $33bn DFI in 8yrs, Says NIPC

01.18.2008

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Nigeria recorded $33 billion Direct Foreign Investment  (DFI) between 1999 and 2007, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Mr Mustapha Bello, has said.

Bello said this while featuring on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum yesterday in Abuja.

He said  that as at 2007,  about $33 billion  which  came into the country  in the form of investments in both oil and non oil sectors of the economy while the country received 22 billion dollars (N2.56 trillion) from Direct Foreign Investments between 1999 and 2002.
"As at 2007, the CBN recorded that about 33 billion dollars (N3.86 trillion) came into the country in the form of investments in both oil and the non oil sectors of the economy,'' Bello said.

“ We have seen a very big leap in investments since 1999. If  you go to the website of World Economic Forum, they reported it.  And we have verified it with our Central Bank that between 1999 and 2002, we received a total of 22 billion dollars in foreign  investments. Substantial part of that was from oil and gas, followed by telecommunications  and other non oil and gas sectors.''

He said in addition to attracting direct foreign investments, government had also encouraged local investors in such areas as agriculture.

He said the initial concept of Export Processing Zone was changed to ``Free trade Zone'' to encourage both importation and exportation of goods.

He said the transformation had led to 100 per cent for both the importation and exportation of goods, as against the previous target of 75 per cent importation and 25 per cent exportation."If you want the Calabar free zone to function, make it flexible. You can import 100 per cent or export 100 per cent," he said.

"We even added a concession of 35 per cent reduction on tariff to investors that manufacture locally what used to be imported"."This is to discourage importation as well as attract new investors,'' the executive secretary said.Bello said there was need for collaboration between all agencies in the free trade zone for government policies to be effectively implemented