A total of 166 non-oil indigenous firms have finalised plans to invest N1.5trillion in the Nigerian economy within the next 12 months.
The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, confirmed the development during a meeting with the Agro-business sector in Lagos yesterday.
He said the investment figure, which was a conservative one because of the few companies captured, was arrived at after an analysis of the survey forms filled by the companies during the ministry’s maiden meeting with the Organised Private Sector and captains of industry.
Of the total amount, the President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, will invest N900billion in the production of fertilizer and petro-chemicals.
The Nigerian Bottling Company Plc. pledged to invest N45billion, Guinness Nigeria Plc .($225million); Odua Investment Company Limited (N37billion); and Chairman, Ikeja Hotels Plc, Mr. Goodie Ibru ($6million); among others.
According to the survey, the manufacturing, real estate, agro-allied and automotive sectors will get N1.06trillion; N198.5billion, N67.8billion and N45billion investments respectively, while tourism, trade and commerce, transport and others will make up the rest.
Aganga, who commended the Nigerian investors for their confidence in the Nigerian economy, added that the federal government was committed to providing the conducing environment to enable the private sector play a pivotal role in the transformation of the country’s economy.
He said at the end of the one-day workshop on agri-business, stakeholders would also come out with a roadmap for the implementation of the Nigerian Agri-business and Agro-industries Development Initiative. This, according to him, will be a major step forward in the efforts aimed at job creation and economic growth.
On the proposed N1.5trillion investment, the minister said, “During our meeting with the Organised Private Sector, we asked them to fill a survey form to indicate the sectors they want to invest in, and more importantly, the expected investment they intend to bring into that sector going forward. The objective was to know the level of investment we can get from the companies in Nigeria before we talk about Foreign Direct Investments.
“The result of that survey has just been released. It showed that the local companies will invest N1.52trillion in the Nigerian economy within the next 12 months. And this is in the non-oil sector alone.”
According to Nigeria’s Vision 2020 document, Nigeria needs to invest N34tn in growth areas in the next four years. Of this, the federal government should account for N10trillion, state governments N9trillion; and private sector (both local and international) N15trillion.
The overall macroeconomic target for the medium term is for Nigeria to achieve a target Gross Domestic Product of N50trillion ($333bn) by 2013, as well as growth in GDP per capita from $1,075 in 2009 to $2,008.75 by 2013.
“The federal government, through the Ministry of Trade and Investment, is fully committed to partnering with these companies by removing any barrier that will impede the investment, which will be pro-growth and pro-jobs,” Aganga said.