ABUJA – The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on Thursday said downward review of 2015 national budget occasioned by declining global oil price would not affect investment in Nigeria.
Executive Secretary of the commission, Mrs Saratu Umar, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
Umar said that though the development had its economic implications, especially on oil revenue and governance, it would not discourage investors from coming to the country.
According to her, if someone is coming in to invest in agriculture and other sectors, for example, and wants to produce, sell and export, I don’t think that the present situation will really affect the investment so much.
She said that the nation’s economy was based on oil but that investment was more of production, buying, selling, and job creation, to support the economy.
The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Sunday announced new fiscal measures as Federal Government’s reaction to remarkable drop in oil price in international market.
The measures included review of the 2015 Appropriation Bill oil benchmark from 78 dollars per barrel to 73 dollars per barrel and imposition of tax on certain luxury items.
She followed it on Monday with further announcement that the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which was recently submitted to the National Assembly had been revised.
On investment, Umar said that in spite of the security challenges in North-West zone of the country, investors had continued to come and that the oil price issue would not change the trend.
“They know that beyond insecurity there is much more in our country; the insecurity will only affect investment in that region because nobody wants to invest where there is insecurity.
“But in other parts of the country it is not really bad because every week you find investors pouring in to invest.
“We have been telling them when we go abroad that if they are waiting for the time when everything is perfect, by that time there will be no opportunity,” she said. (NAN)