Nnamdi Okonkwo, group managing director, Fidelity Bank plc, says oil price crash provides investment opportunities in the non-oil economy for the private sector.
Okonkwo, who has come in contact with several investment proposals, also identified investment opportunities in education, infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture and ICT among other sectors.
Specifically, he sees shift in government spending creating huge opportunity in various sectors of the economy, but challenges the government to create the right policy and environment for investment to thrive in those sectors.
“Just create the right environment and investors will come,” Okonkwo said, at the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting held on Thursday in Lagos.
“We have aspirations but the missing link is execution. We need strong institutions to help drive those aspirations”, Okonkwo said in Lagos.
Nigerian economy is battling more than 50 percent crash in oil prices and fall in GDP. Unemployment has continued to worsen while several states cannot pay workers’ salaries and emoluments as revenue from the federal government, where they get monthly allocations, continues to nosedive.
Okonkwo said the private sector must now look away from oil and direct its focus on the non-oil sector.
He said government plan and budget on agriculture are high, urging the private sector to tap into viable opportunities in agriculture, notably potato and palm oil.
“Potatoes are imported from South Africa. We all know that we have potatoes here. So why are we importing them? You can imagine the opportunity lying here,” he disclosed.
“Talk of palm oil. In palm oil alone, you can crush and also get biogas to power turbines. Imagine if we have a company playing in this area in all the states in Nigeria,” he said.
He said opportunities exist in captive power, transport and manufacturing, stressing that with the state of the economy, an exporter has more to gain than an importer.
“Drive in self-sufficiency for staple foods will create opportunities. The opportunities should not be taken in isolation,” he counselled.
Akin Olawore, deputy president, Nigerian –British Chamber, said the country needs to start looking up.
“We have a lot of untapped natural resources. Most of the inflow from Nigeria-British trade comes from the UK. We have a lot of opportunities that need be tapped,” Olawore said.
ODINAKA ANUDU & HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
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