Nigeria now safe haven for investors – FG

Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has urged potential investors in Nigerian to take advantage of the Change agenda of the present administration to tap from the huge benefits inherent in the economy, describing Nigeria as a safe haven for foreign investors.

The Minister made the call on Thursday when a delegation of Foreign Investors led by Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, a former National Planning Minister visited her Ministry.

The delegation of the Foreign Investors came from United States, United Kingdom, Middle East, China, France, South Africa etc under the auspices of Renaissance Capital Investments.

The Minister who described Nigeria business climate as favourable, said “Our N6,08 trillion budget is designed to stimulate and reflect our economy, we are making conscious efforts at reducing barriers of doing business in Nigeria. Our government is heavily fighting corruption and insecurity challenges is almost successfully tackled’’

She also stated that the 2016 budget which is zero based is designed to reflect the economy for the creation of jobs and boost the productive sectors of the economy, adding that the budget will be monitored closely through the robust Monitoring & Evaluation mechanism put in place by her ministry to ensure funds are released based on result performance

Accordingly, she further disclosed that the Federal Government is building an economy that will not suffer oil prices shocks as well as disclosed that efforts are put in place to prevent leakages in the system which is targeted at boosting investor’s confidence.

Responding to the observation raised on the unrealistic non-oil revenue projections in the 2016 budget since Nigerians do not like paying taxes, the Minister stated that; since the bulk of revenue we require to run the budget will be from non- oil sector. We have gaps in the area of tax collection, but our revenue collecting agencies have a revenue target. There are efforts to register large number of Nigerians especially the informal businesses not registered in to our tax base. Efforts will also be put to prevent leakages.

Speaking on behalf of the group, the former Planning Minister, praised the Ministry’s effort to update the vision 20:2020 as well as reactivating of the based management performance.