Pantami: Nigeria best market for investment… FG providing enabling environment

Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, says Nigeria has the best market for investment as the country is “blessed”.

Pantami said this on Monday when he featured as a guest on ‘Good Morning Nigeria’, a programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Speaking on investment in the digital economy, he said the present administration was able to persuade foreign investors to partner with the country at the Nigeria international partnership forum, which held recently in Paris.

He said the country’s proximity to West and Central Africa provides an enabling environment for foreign investors, adding that efforts have been made to improve security in Nigeria.

“We have been able to show to them the progress we have made so far when it comes to security, when it comes to infrastructure, like in my area, broadband penetration and many more,” he said.

“These are some of the achievements we were able to achieve during the Nigeria international partnership forum which to me is indeed a milestone on our ability to attract investors to come to Nigeria.

“We were able to explain to them the effort of the government so far and the enabling environment that has been provided; the market that we have particularly. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and the most populous country in Africa.

“We have been blessed with the digital native youths that understand technology and at the same time, we showed to them that coming to Nigeria to invest in the digital economic sector by implication is like dominating the whole of Africa, starting with West and Central Africa.

“In Nigeria, we are blessed with a population of over 200 million people and Nigeria is the gateway of West Africa. So, if you invest in Nigeria, you have access to over 200 million people within the country and you are at the gateway of West Africa where you have another additional 200 million people and additional 150 million people in Central Africa.

“If you add Nigeria with West and Central Africa, you will have access to 550 million people. If you look at Nigeria geographically, it is at the centre of Africa. Relatively, with these, you will have access to around 1.37 billion people in Africa.

“We were able to show to them the enabling environment, market we have in Nigeria and the proximity of dominating West Africa on one hand, Central Africa on one hand and the ability to expand your business to all other African countries from Nigeria, which is relatively at the centre of Africa.

“So, with these, most of them were convinced that Nigeria is the best place to invest and the earlier they come to Nigeria to invest, the better for all of them.

“There is no doubt that they have been convinced beyond reasonable doubt that there is no other market better than Nigeria today; not only in Africa but globally because we are blessed with the economy, population, and with the need to promote our environment.”