Why Nigeria Is Best Investment Destination In Africa — Emefiele, CBN Gov

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The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has described Nigeria as the best investment destination in Africa.

Mr Emefiele said this on Wednesday at the Paris Peace Forum in France while urging French investors to invest in the country.

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The CBN boss said Africa holds the best frontier for development in the world today, with the continent providing the highest yield from investments.

“People are saying Nigeria should take the lead,” he said.

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“I am saying to you the foreign investors if you think about Africa for the opportunity and investment, you don’t have a choice you will have to look at Nigeria.

“Nigeria has the largest economy and population in Africa, and it is being projected to be the third largest population in the world by 2050 — if you do think about investing in Africa — join us in developing Nigeria and Africa continent.”

Mr Emefiele urged investors to look at metrics like the nation’s economic sustainability plan and the potential for growth.

“The possible outlook is due to the high oil price which today is above $80 per barrel, the implementation of the economic sustainability plan which was put in place during the period of the pandemic and a rebound in our manufacturing activities and economic activities in Nigeria,” the CBN governor said.

He explained that the country’s inflation was as high as 18.17% during the pandemic and is about 16.6% today, adding that it would moderate to about “15.35% by December 2021 and further down to about 14.91% by February 2022.”

“Before the president came on board in 2015, a couple of our textile industries, some of our manufacturing industries due to certain challenges they faced in the economy closed down,” Mr Emefiele said of the country’s diversification efforts.

“We are now looking forward to making sure that we reposition and reopen these industries again.

“We are making granting of credit easy for these industries so that they can embrace and attract cheap credit, long term credit and I can say in a long time in the history of the financial system in Nigeria, manufacturing sectors can access credit at single digit interest rate of no more than 9%.”

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