A real estate developer, Mr Solomon Ogunseye, called on the Federal Government to liberalize key sectors of the economy to attract more Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into Nigeria. Ogunseye, who is also Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), made the suggestion that the FDI was necessary to boost economic growth, noting that government alone would not develop every sector of the economy without support from local and foreign investors alike. The developer said that government should do away with policy inconsistency to engender investors’ confidence.
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According to him, policy inconsistency should be done away with because it is a major hindrance to FDI into Nigeria. He called for right policies, legislation and regulatory framework that could guarantee a stable macroeconomic environment. In his words, the government needs to put in place the right policies and legislation to guarantee investors’ confidence that if they come into this environment, there will not be policy summersaults. He also added that there will not be any challenges with profits or dividends, there will be respect for contractual agreements and that the macroeconomic environment will be stable then the economy will attract foreign investments.
He pointed out that many countries, including Dubai developed through FDI because FDI complement domestic investments. FDI is what the real estate industry and the country generally need to grow. All the government needs do is to make the country business conducive for foreign investors to bring in more money for investment. In Dubai, an enabling environment is created to encourage all to bring in money for investment.
Ogunseye noted that the country could adopt the same approach, having achieved reasonable peace and security for businesses to thrive. He advised the Federal government of Nigeria not to relent in its fight against corruption and to ensure stable electricity, transportation network and relax the visa regime, among others. The BCPG chairman also suggested that the government should simplify the screening processes of FDI such that any foreign investor could easily bring in his investment to boost national income.
Source: The Nation
