More Jobs Coming As Investors Pledge To Invest $8.41bn In Nigeria

There are hopes that more jobs may be coming into the Nigerian economy with the commitment y some investor to invest a total of $8.41bn in various sectors of the economy.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Ms Yewande Sadiku who confirmed this said that he amount was pledged in the first quarter of this year.

Sadiku disclosed this during a chat with journalists on the highlight of the first quarter achievement of the Commission in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Over 23.19 million Nigerians according to the National Bureau of Statistics report were unemployed during the fourth quarter of 2020.

This is 33.3 per cent of the working population.

The country’s unemployment level is the second highest globally.

The NIPC boss noted that although investment announcements are not actually investment, it gives an aggregate of investors’ interest in Nigeria and also help to translate those announcements to actual investment.

She said, “We’ve been honest that the gap between announcement and actual investment demonstrate potential, we’ve also said that a more proactive all of government approach to investors support across federal and state level is required to convert more announcement to actual investment.”

”If we convert 10 per cent or 20 per cent of investment announcements it will make a material change but you cannot get to the point of conversion if you don’t know what you are looking for.”

The NIPC Director, Department of Strategic Communication, Mr Emeka Offor said the investment announcement are categorised by sector, by destination and by source.

According to him, ”In the current Q1 2021 report, we have manufacturing taking the lead followed by construction and electricity, by destination we have Bayelsa State, we have Delta State and Akwa-Ibom and by source Nigerians are showing great resilience by coming out tops and the last quarter, Morocco comes second and UK third.”

He added that 15 projects were tracked from eight states.

The NIPC Head of Corporate Services, Mr Sabo Isiaku noted that in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, mandatory disclosures, most of which cover January-March 2021, have been placed on the FOI Section of NIPC’s website.

He stated that they include the Pioneer Status Incentive Report, list of companies registered under the NIPC Act, list of court cases that NIPC is involved in, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and agreements signed by NIPC.

Others are procurements records, nominal roll and nominal roll summaries, appropriation budget performance, report of the One Stop Investment Centre and IGR revenue and expenditure

He said others include the 2021 Appropriation Budget and 2021 procurement plan of the commission.