This is not how you attract investors, Emir Sanusi blasts Nigerian govt

The Emir of Kano State, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has rued how the Federal Government fails to grab opportunities to attract foreign investors into Nigeria.

Citing an example, the monarch said the failure of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, some ministers and other top government officials, to attend a meeting with investors in Washington DC, United State (US) on Saturday, was not how the country would want to attract investors to Nigeria.

The Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC had organised the investment programme and arranged a meeting between some foreign investors and Nigerian government officials. But many of the government officials expected at the meeting failed to show up.

Aside Osinbajo, other top government officials who were expected at the meeting but failed to attend included, ministers of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Power, Babatunde Fashola; Petroleum Resources State, Ibe Kachikwu; Finance Kemi Adeosun and Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi Minister.

Also absent were Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission.

Sanusi, who attended the meeting, spoke with newsmen in Washington DC soon after the meeting, and expressed disappointment with the government officials.

He was also not happy with the delay in starting the meeting as well as non-functioning of the public address system used for the meeting.

Sanusi said, “For the person sitting in London and who has a billion dollars to invest, he’s got Nigeria, he’s got Ghana, he’s got Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, you may be the biggest economy, but he may decide that rather than go through the hassle of investing $500 million in Nigeria, why not put $100 million in Ghana, $100 million in Rwanda, $100 million in Cote d’Ivore, just to have diversification benefit and the benefit of reaching out.

“We had a meeting today with investors, we were supposed to start by 9am we started at 10. When I came in they took me to the ambassador’s office to sit down, when investors were waiting down there. We had a list of people who were to be here, vice president, ministers, some of them are in town, but they haven’t come up.

“You invite top investors, your ministers are in Washington and they do not come to talk to the investors about Nigeria. That is not how you attract investors. If you have this forum in the Rwandan embassy, I assure you President Kagame himself would be there telling people to come to Rwanda.”

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Noting that there was no reason the government officials should be absent at the meeting, the Emir added, “Sometimes, it is about how we market ourselves, how we package ourselves. There is absolutely no reason for the Nigerian embassy to arrange a Nigeria is open for Business forum with ministers in town, with governors in town and not have the coordination that they are actually here to meet with these investors.

“There is no reason why we should start one hour late, and there is no reason why the public address system should not work. Because at the end of the day, this is the first point of the country, he hasn’t even come to Nigeria so what will be his experience in Abuja and he is saying if I am having this experience in Washington, what will happen when I go to Abuja, when I go to Kano, how do I get to see the governor will it take me 10 hours?”

 

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