The Chairman of Heirs Holdings Group and United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu, has urged Indian investors to leverage an array of opportunities in Nigeria, adding that now is the best time to invest in Africa’s largest economy.
Mr Elumelu disclosed this on Wednesday at the Nigeria-Presidential Roundtable and Conference in New Delhi.
He is attending the conference alongside prominent business magnates including Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Cosmas Maduka, Jim Ovia, Allen Onyema and Razak Okoya, all as invitees of President Bola Tinubu, who is in the South East Asian country to attend the G20 summit.
“Nigeria is a huge market; over 200 million people with the largest economy on the continent,” Mr Elumelu said.
“We have a cohort of young people who are there to consume, and we also have people who are intelligent, energetic, hardworking, who provide the human capital that investors need to drive their businesses.”
Nigeria is trying to attract investments to boost its sluggish economy, whose growth rate slowed to 2.5 per cent in the three months through June, rather than fund key infrastructures via debt.
Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, told lawmakers in August he would be looking to attract “investment fund and equity fund, not debt from those around the world interested in investing in the Nigerian economy.”
This week, Mr Tinubu secured commitments totalling $14 billion from various Indian investors, following his assurance to create a safe haven for foreign investments.
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While Jindal Steel and Power vowed to plough $3 billion into the Nigerian steel industry, Indorama Corp committed to ramping up its petrochemical plant in the country by an additional $8 billion.
Jitender Sachdeva, the founder of SkipperSeil Limited, promised an investment worth $1.6 billion in power generation in northern Nigeria targeting 2000 MW.
Bharti Enterprises pledged an extra investment of $700 million while an agreement of $1 billion was reached with the Indian Government to help the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria attain 40% self-sufficiency in local manufacturing and production of defence equipment in three years.
“This is the time to invest in Nigeria. I speak as a private sector investor in Nigeria, the companies in our Group’s investment portfolio demonstrate the opportunity,” Mr Elumelu said.
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