THE INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE IN NIGERIA ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE NIGERIA – CANADA INVESTMENT SUMMIT 2018 (NCIS 2018) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2018 ABUJA • It is a special pleasure to be here at this first edition of the Nigeria- Canada Investment Summit. • Let me join the Hon Minister and His Excellency the Nigerian Ambassador to Canada in welcoming all of our visitors to Nigeria, especially those visiting for the first time. I trust that you will, while here in Abuja, take advantage of the warm hospitality and rich culture that Nigeria offers but perhaps also our spicy culinary delights. I will, suggest a less spicy culinary delight than Suya, Kilishi. • Nigeria and Canada have a long history of friendly relations as Commonwealth countries, as Federations, as well as a shared commitment to promoting global peace as shown by our common track record of contribution to United Nations peacekeeping missions. • Our bilateral relations were further strengthened by the recent visit of the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor-General of Canada to Nigeria. And everyone is still talking about how down to earth and inspirational she was. This summit further confirms the mutual desire for deeper engagement not just between our government s but also our business communities. • Nigeria is Canada’s largest trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, but then as you have heard from both the Nigerian Ambassador in Canada and the Canadian deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria there is tremendous opportunity and scope for increased trade and investment ties between our two countries. • The need to fully realise Nigeria’s immense investment potential impelled us, more than two years ago, to launch a process of reforms aimed at improving Nigeria’s business environment, with the inauguration of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). 2 • The Committee was tasked with progressively removing the challenges faced by investors in doing business in Nigeria and ensuring coordination across several Ministries and agencies of government. With the support of the leadership of the National Assembly and the State Governors, we were able to drive reforms that earned us a place last year as one of the world’s 10 best reforming economies. • The reforms continued in 2018 and have resulted in further improvements in Nigeria’s ease of doing business score, for the third time in the last three years. We have also recorded improvements in the perception of Nigeria’s competitiveness. Although some of the results are modest, we have arrested the decline in Nigeria’s indices and positioned our country as clearly committed to incremental reform. • We are now in our fifth consecutive quarter of economic growth, after five quarters of negative growth in 2016/2017. Of course, the growth rate needs to be ramped up in order to surpass the growth rate of our population and build on. the momentum of economic change. Other macroeconomic indicators continue to trend in desired directions with inflation falling from about 15.9% this time last year and now levelling out at about 11.3% over the past four months. Of course, it needs to come down even more. We are confident that the encouraging results will further propel the reforms needed to entrench economic growth and prosperity. • In the coming years the prospects of Nigeria as an investment destination will be even brighter. In two decades, we will be the third most populous country in the world, and at the same time one of the youngest countries in the world. 3 • With the ongoing efforts at harnessing the entrepreneurial energy of our youthful population, we expect meaningful contributions not just to Nigeria’s GDP, but to helping to develop home-grown solutions that will move our continent towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Nigeria will be the fourteenth largest economy in the world, and one that every company seeking growth should keep in its sights as an investment destination. • Our medium-term economic plan, documented in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) identified some of the sectors that many Canadian investors are already very familiar with as priority sectors: power generation, renewable energy, development of gas to power, mining of solid minerals, agriculture and OOD processing, manufacturing and real estate. • However, opportunities also abound in social infrastructure (education and healthcare) as well as physical infrastructure (air, land and sea transport). While we formulate the policies in government, we expect the private sector to make the necessary investments and encourage Nigerian and foreign investors to work with us towards the realisation of these opportunities. • To accelerate the mobilisation of private capital towards the achievement of the ERGP, we conducted ‘Focus Labs’ over a period of 17 weeks in the first half of 2018. These Focus Labs are special interventions targeted at resolving specific bureaucratic bottlenecks facing large-scale investments in Nigeria. In the labs, investors sit with relevant Ministers, regulators and government agencies to resolve the investors specific problems. The Focus Labs identified $22.5 billion worth of private investments in six of our priority sectors, with the potential to create half a million jobs by 2020. 4 • $10.9bn of these investments are “most ready to go”, meaning that the issues delaying them can be resolved – and are being resolved – speedily. We intend continue the use of focus labs to resolve problems investors may have. I also encourage Canadian investors interested in any of these sectors to reach out to the team at Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) who are here for the summit for additional information. • Given Canada’s strengths in these areas and the potentials of the Nigerian economy, I am certain that this Summit will lead to positive outcomes for all participants. All of the efforts I have just outlined, around Ease of Doing Business and the resolution of bureaucratic issues, can be summed up as ‘soft infrastructure’. We are making aggressive interventions in the ‘hard infrastructure’ elements as well – roads, rail and power – because we fully understand the very vital catalytic role that these play for private investment. • The implementation of our vision for a modern national rail network that connects all 36 States of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory is well on course. Power generation and Transmission capacity are up forty percent in the last three years, investments in airport and seaport upgrades are also ongoing. • All of these infrastructure upgrades in turn open up fresh opportunities for the private sector to participate, by way of public private partnerships, concessions, and additional investments. We are under no illusions that the Government can by itself fund Nigeria’s infrastructure requirements. So, we welcome you to explore how you can be a part of the changing story of our infrastructure. 5 • Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, this Summit offers the opportunity to discover Nigeria first hand, to go beyond the news headlines and the clichés, and come to a deeper understanding of what makes us tick: the entrepreneurial energy, the optimism, the fast-growing impact of technology, and so on. The recently released Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum ranked Nigeria as 13th in the world in terms of taking entrepreneurial risk - which as we all know, is the lifeblood of successful economies. • I encourage you, while here, to explore Nigeria’s online investors Guide, which has useful information on how to set up a business, indicative costs of select services and will guide you understand labour, land, tax and other matters. • For the more established visitors to Nigeria, I trust you have noted that a lot of your feedback drove our reforms at improving our country’s business environment. Please keep the feedback coming, to help guide us on our journey of continuous improvement. • The relationship with Canada will continue to be a very important one for us. Our records show that over the last five years, Canada has announced a number of important investments in Nigeria, which will lead to jobs and economic opportunity for our people. • I am aware of recent discussions between our Ministers on the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement which Nigeria and Canada signed in 2014. I understand that some more work is required to ensure that the agreement comes into force as soon as possible, and that our teams have been in discussions on how to achieve this. 6 • We are strengthening and empowering the government agencies involved directly with investors. NIPC, the agency established to represent the interest of investors is working on several initiatives aimed at better achieving its mandate. They have recently completed a revision of the list of Pioneer Status Incentives – the last time such a review was done was more than 10 years ago. The recent revision has modernized the List, expanding the tax holiday incentives to qualifying companies in E-commerce, Software Development, Animation, Music, Film and TV. • The NIPC is now in the process of building a database of investment opportunities across Nigeria, to guide potential investors. I encourage all investors to make them a first port of call for information and guidance on investing in Nigeria. • We are committed to listening to you as investors, and engaging with you. Please be assured that we remain committed to driving further reforms, especially in the areas of security and the rule of law and improve the experience of doing business in Nigeria. • I hope that in the time you will spend here in Nigeria, you will at least give you a better feel for the prospects Nigeria’s abundant investment opportunities. • Let me once again say how delighted I am to see the great partnership behind the organisation of this Summit, and commend the organisers: the Nigeria High Commission in Canada, The Canadian Embassy in Nigeria and Prime Essentials Development and Investment Ltd for coming up with such a great idea.