Poor External Image Denies Nigeria Of Foreign Investments: U.N.C.T.A.D.

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigeria's poor external image is denying it much-needed foreign direct investment (FDI) to accelerate its economic growth, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has reported.
In its latest report on world investment presented at a public forum late Thursday in the economic capital Lagos, UNCTAD highlighted the difficulties faced by prospective investors in Nigeria.
Participants at the forum, mostly businessmen, said Africa's most populous nation is suffering from its poor external image, which is a disincentive to investors.
"An investor called me from Abuja the other day and informed me that he would come to Lagos to prospect. But after some days, he explained to me that they would not come any more to Lagos," said Frank Aigbogun, publisher and director of Business Day, a specialised business and economic daily newspaper.
"Why didn't they come? Because beyond the roadblocks to investments like corruption in Nigeria, there are too many other things that our eyes do not see," he said.
Other contributors said although some laws that protect investments exist, they are not applied.
For example, the government banned the importation of certain products such as frozen chicken, shoes, water and juices, but "we continue to find these outlawed imported products in the Nigerian markets," Ernest Shonekan, a former civilian president turned businessman said.
A.F. Epelle, managing director of Samuelson Management Limited, a financial consultancy firm, noted that "Nigeria is considered as an under-performer in terms of inward FDI".
"Unfortunately certain barriers continue to hinder investments in our country: political risks, unpredictability of the economic climate, as well as frequent changes in economic policies or positions of government officials", he said.
In its 2004 report titled "World Investment Report 2004: The shift towards services", UNCTAD showed that Nigeria is the fifth African country to benefit from FDI flow with 1.2 billion dollars in 2003 and 1.3 billion in 2002.
According to the report, Morocco received 2.3 billion dollars in 2003, Angola 1.4 billion and Sudan 1.3 billion dollars.
"I was talking with an investor who said to me that foreign investors will not help Nigeria until Nigerians themselves take the first step" said Lawrence Osa-Afiana, managing director of Bank of Industry of Nigeria.
Epelle deplored the situation, saying that domestic investment was very small.
"I believe that if 100 percent corporate tax rebate of profits are wholly reinvested to stem outward FDI's and capital flight, it will be beneficial for the stimulation of FDI's", he stated.
He said that banks should also assist in developing vibrant commodity exchange markets which currently exist but not at the needed level.
It is hoped that investments could increase in Nigeria, thereby augmenting potential market, even if 80 percent of the 130 million population, according to the United Nations, live on one dollar a day.
The telecommunications sector, for example, is on the verge of explosion. Investments from Europe and South Africa especially have increased tremendously since the liberalisation of the sector.
UN Information Service director in Nigeria Finjap Njinga said: "In Africa, privatisation would continue to play a key role in the influx of FDI on the continent, but that will be insufficient."
He, nevertheless, expressed the hope that the continent would continue to benefit from foreign investments in the oil sector.
"FDI assistance linked with oil, represents a very large part of the total in Africa ... Increase in oil exploration and production in Chad, in Mauritania, in the Gulf of Guinea end now in Libya, are good indicators in this direction," he concluded.