Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Ambassador Michael Olufemi Abikoye has said that Nigeria remains the best country to invest in Africa having recorded seven consecutive months of lower inflation with steady stabilization of Naira and $808.56 million injected into the economy as Foreign Direct Investment, FDI in the first quarter of 2018.
Besides, the envoy disclosed that the new presidential initiative is starting with each state of the Federation creating a minimum of 10,000 jobs for unemployed youths, adding “elsewhere in the economy, the special window created for manufactures, investors and exports, foreign exchange requirements has proved very effective, since April, $7billon has come through this window alone”.
In his address to mark Nigeria’s 58th Independence Anniversary celebration in Accra, Ghana, Abikoye explained that the government under the leadership of President Muhammadu has remained pro-active in its diversification of policies, stressing that its agricultural Anchor Borrowers Programme has been an outstanding success with various initiatives to enhance self-sufficiency in food production and exports.
“The present administration has produced over seven million 50Kg bags of fertilizer; 11 blending plants with a capacity of 2.1 million metric tons which have been reactivated. We have saved $150 million in foreign exchange and N60 billion in subsidy”, he added.
Abikoye, however, informed that the federal government was determined to eradicate corruption from the nation’s body politic, “even as it is fully aware that fighting corruption was never going to be a straightforward task”.
“As the President would say, ‘if we refuse to kill corruption then certainly corruption will kill us and kill the nation’. And, as such, we expected corrupt elements to use any weapon to fight back, using mainly judicial obstruction, political diversion and primordial sentiments.
“In this fight, the government has empowered teams of prosecutors, assembled detailed databases, and accelerated the recovery of stolen funds. Furthermore, the administration’s new institutional reforms include successful enforcement of Treasury Single Account, Whistle-Blowers Policy, and Integrated Payroll Personnel and Information System. The government has also signed multi-lateral cooperation agreements on criminal matters with friendly countries”, he stressed.
On security, he said: “The present government has indeed brought renewed hope in restoring our security, re-balancing the economy and tirelessly fighting corruption now almost to a standstill. All these are battles that must be won and am happy to unequivocally say that we are winning on all fronts to the admiration of our citizenry and international partners”.
Abikoye, however, argued that Nigerians must be grateful to the Armed Forces for rolling back the frontiers of Boko Haram’s terrorism, defeating them and reducing them to cowardly attacks on soft and vulnerable target, saying “Nigeria is grateful to its neighbours and the international community for the collective efforts to defeat this world-wide menace of terrorism”.
He also pointed out that “the mileage gain in our political freedom and democratization process with open and robust debates in various fora on how to move the country forward by addressing genuine grievances of our communities”.
On relationship between Nigeria and Ghana, the envoy described them as the two largest economies in West Africa, saying the subsisting excellent bilateral relations between them remain a crucial one for the region.
“While the gains from these relations are growing in bounds by the day, and in all spheres of human endeavour, may I humbly observe that we can do more”, Abikoye added.
