Godwin Emefiele, governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, has urged investors in Washington to look to Nigeria and other African countries for investments even in the face of current challenges.
Emefiele made the appeal during his speech after the EuroKnowledge award was conferred on him by FIN Banking on Emerging Markets Forum on the sidelines of the ongoing International Monetary Fund/World Bank annual meetings in Washington.
Specifically, he told the investors that confidence was rising in Africa, and urged them to consider Nigeria, Angola, South Africa and Egypt for investments due to huge growth opportunities there.
“Nigeria, Angola, South Africa and Egypt are economies that you would need to think about. And I dare say these economies hold a lot of strong opportunities for high yields and profitable projects and I can only seize this opportunity to encourage our friends in the foreign investment community to continue to take a look at Africa. Africa yearns for growth and development,” Emefiele stated.
“We cannot do this alone; we will continue to need the support of the rest of the world. But I can assure all of us that as you do this, the opportunities are there and you will not regret taking the opportunities.
“The opportunities are there I can only continue to say let’s give the support to Africa let’s give the support to Nigeria. We should all continue to work together for the growth, not just for our individual countries but for Africa as a whole.”
He dedicated the award to his colleagues at the CBN as well as other Nigerians for their support, assuring that the recognition would encourage him to do more.
“When your credentials and all you have done is being read out to the public, you begin to wonder how you managed to do all this. But what this does is to encourage you to do more,” he said.
“When we talk about the challenges that we are currently facing, I can tell you that it hasn’t been easy in the last eight and half years, where we have gone through two recessions – one between 2015 and 2016 and another short-lived one in the second and third quarter 2021 during the period of Covid-19.
“Usually as the Governor of a Central Bank, you never pray to go through a recession twice but we have managed to go through this with a lot of hard work and support from our colleagues at the CBN, all our departments and members of our monetary policy meeting. We really want to thank all of you.
“This award is not just for me, it is meant for all of us who have worked hard in the last eight and half years to keep Nigeria strong and going.”
