TheCable

The federal government says prevailing insecurity affected Nigeria’s ranking on the top 10 preferred investment destinations in Africa. 

Niyi Adebayo, minister of trade and investment, said this at the 26th ministerial press briefing organised by the presidential communication team at the presidential villa, Abuja. 

While speaking at the Expo 2020 Dubai trade and investment forum in UAE, President Muhammadu Buhari had said that Nigeria is ‘Africa’s most attractive investment destination.’ 

But a recent report by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) titled ‘Where to Invest in Africa 2021’ placed Nigeria in the 14th position on investment attractive nations in Africa. 

According to the latest index, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa emerged as first, second, and third most preferred markets on the continent.

Rwanda and Botswana moved up the rankings from five and thirteen in 2020 to positions four and five, respectively.

The minister attributed the latest ranking by RMD to the security challenges in the country.

“The reason for that are various, the major one being the security problems that we have in the country,” he said.

According to him, the federal government is making stringent efforts to resolve the security problems so that Nigeria will return to the position of being the preferred destination for investment. 

“However, having said this, the feedback that I have begun to get lately from some of the people, the foreign governments that I have been meeting is that our position is getting better because there seems to be a big interest now again in investing in Nigeria,” the minister said.

“So, I’m sure as time goes on, we will begin to see an improvement in that situation.”