There are concerns over the way and manner Adeniyi Adebayo, Nigeria’s new minister for industry, trade and investment, is piloting the affairs of the ministry as industry experts say they expect more, given how critical his sector is to the development of the economy.
Since his appointment to head the ministry of industry trade and investments, over two months ago, not much has been heard of him by the investing public, in terms of setting out an agenda that would attract more foreign direct investment, create jobs and boost economic growth in Africa’ biggest economy.
As at yesterday when Businessday was filing this report, the ministry is still having the names of both Okechukwu Enelemah and Aisha Abubakar, its former minister and minister of states respectively, crested on its official Twitter account. However, there has not been a single tweet on any activity from either the new minister or his assistant, making analysts worry on whether Adebayo, has his eyes fixed on the sparrow
ne might ask do all this matter. Well, they matter because no other ministry should be more outwardfacing than that of industry, trade and investment, said Olu Fasan, a London-based lawyer, political economist and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics noted.
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“The industry, trade and investment is a ministry that has the whole world as its platform, and if foreign investors, traders and policymakers want to follow developments on Nigeria’s industrial, trade and investment policies, they might want to see what the minister and/or the ministry is tweeting,” Fasan said in a
Monday, 28 October publication in Businessday.
Like other critical agencies such as the Finance Ministry, the Ministry for Industry, trade and investment is an agency that is very critical at a time when Africa’s largest economy is in need of foreign investments to create jobs, reduce poverty, close income inequality gaps and achieve inclusive growth in an economy still healing from a recession that occurred in 2016.
Investors’ confidence came cold after an acute dollar shortage that happened from the fallout of the recession, intensify capital outflows and made investors fly to other markets for safety. But the investment landscape is gradually becoming bright in the eyes of foreign investors especially with improvements seen in the World Bank ease of doing business ranking.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria in the last one year recorded giant strides in areas of electricity, enforcement of contracts, registration of properties and enhancement of trade across countries, which helped in causing the improvement in the ranking.
Africa’s largest economy moved 15 places up from a previous ranking of 146th, to occupy the 131 spots, making the Washington-based lender, named it among 10 major improvers in the ranking.
Analysts argue that Nigeria may have shined in the latest World Bank ease of doing business ranking, but it would take more than mere rhetorics to convert this favourable improvement into attracting actual Foreign Direct Investment inflows into the country.
In the last 17 years when the Washington based lender started tracking the ease of doing business across countries, there has been a strong positive correlation between improvements in the ratings and direct capital inflows as investors, particularly Foreign Direct investors, use the metrics as a gauge when making investment decisions.
When Nigeria moved up 24 places from 169 to 145 in the 2018 report, Foreign Direct investment into the country jumped 21.69 per cent from $981 million in 2017 to $1.19 billion, making analysts argue a strong correlation exists between the indexes and investors’ confidence in a country.
But on the flip side, analysts say this improvement can only be a reality to translate into the much needed direct investments that would create jobs and boost economic growth if and only if, Nigeria’s trade and investment minister step up his game, but sadly, that has not been seen.
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“Nigeria’s improvements in the ranking may not translate to improved capital investment in light of the insecurity challenges, huge infrastructural deficits and inconsistency in government policy that is still seen,” For Ayodeji Ebo, MD, Afrinvest Securities Limited, told Businessday on phone.
So far in 2019, Nigeria has recorded a total of $24.43 billion investment announcements, according to data tracked by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council. This is a 66.6 per cent decline of from the $73.09 billion investment announced within the same time in the previous year.
This shows Africa’s largest economy needs more than just the ranking from the World Bank to drive investments, which the ministry must be at the forefront in pushing.
Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, 61, is a Nigerian politician and traditional aristocrat. He was a former governor of Ekiti State and a son to the late military governor of the defunct western region, Maj. Gen, Adeyinka Adebayo (retd).
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