Medium Term Expenditure Framework should increase investors’ appetite, says OPS

The Organised Private Sector (OPS) said Thursday, that Nigeria’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) must be structured in a way that significantly de-risks the investment landscape.

This was a fall out from deliberations made by Nigeria’s Economic management team and the OPS; that the latter may add bits and pieces to arrive at a popular consensus for the MTEF, which is targeted at reflating Africa’s largest economy.

Udo Udoma, minister for budget and planning, while addressing the gathering full of key private stakeholders, stressed the need for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to see through capital projects, as government revenue heads south.

“We are looking for investors willing to partner with government to provide jobs and necessary infrastructure that would resuscitate the economy,” Udoma said.

The minister added that government is particularly committed to an economic growth target of 10 percent and “we need private investment to achieve this.”

One of the investors in the room opined that for the MTEF to be successful, government must hold strong on creating an enabling environment and favorable policies that incentivise private investments.

“Government has been timid in privatization and making away with harsh regulations. Investors dont need to be encouraged, we need to be incentivised.”

Other investors fingered the need to look at adding value to agricultural produce rather than exporting the raw.
This, they say, would shore up plunging revenues and suppress unemployment rate.