‘Timing for US Planned Investor Roadshow in Nigeria is Wrong’

Funmi Ogundare

A Professor of Economics at Lagos Business School, Professor Adi Bongo, has described the United States of America’s investor roadshow designed to expose investors to investment opportunities and ecosystem in Nigeria as a poorly timed event.

The programme, which is scheduled to hold from October 9 to October 13, is a partnership between the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) mission in Nigeria and its Prosper Africa Initiatives, to strengthen trade relationship between Nigeria and USA and attract investment.

Bongo, who was a guest on ARISE News The Morning Show, said that the fact that the United States chose to host the programme in Nigeria, is a big plus, but the country is not an attractive destination to investment due to government’s antecedents towards contracts and the challenge of President Tinubu’s administration reputation.

He explained that the Nigerian government should have put its house in order and be a building block before lobbying for the investment that they want.

According to him, “there are certain dimensions that an investor may want to go into such as market entry research and ask basic questions on the exchange rate and full valuation of the Naira. Aside this, we also talk about infrastructure and human capital which are the people that will man the investment.

“Our best experts are leaving the country in their large numbers, and government’s antecedent toward contracts is nothing to write home about.

“Our government is not a respecter of contracts which has to go with a legal framework allowed around investment. Any investors will look at antecedents of the government and will have to sign contracts to show their commitment because we are talking about Public Private Partnership (PPP).”

Bongo noted that the investors want assurance and confidence about their capitals, while expressing concern that the government of the day exudes none of these.

“The legal framework will guarantee that these people can take out their investment or do their business legitimately and when they want to go, they can exit confidently. These things have not been fully addressed.

“Any investor that wants to do business in Nigeria has to conduct a good business plan and do a feasibility analysis ensuring the demand profile, as well as market entry research. The market entry research will definitely reveal the high risk prevalence in the Nigerian ecosystem,” he stated.

The don described investment as hard-nosed saying that they need to look at the conditions of operation to see whether it will translate to foreign portfolio or direct investment in the country.