Investigation has revealed that over N200 billion is lost
annually due to poor state of roads in the country and unfriendly policies of
the government. This amidst other challenges has been a major factor why
foreign investors are scared of investing in the country despite the executive
order on ease of doing business initiative, with the aim of attracting foreign
investors into the country.
Poor implementation of government policies, comatose state of the nation’s
roads, obsolete infrastructure and corruption have been Identified as the major reasons foreign investors shun
the country for other neighbouring nations.
The Director, Research and Advocacy Lagos Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, Dr Vincent Nwani said despite Nigeria being an
attractive market destination, non implementation of government policies, bad
roads network, corruption among others have always been the bedrock while
foreign investors prefer neighbouring nations to Nigeria.
According to him “Nigeria has always remained an attractive
market to both domestic and foreign investors due to population base,
consumption per time and because of profitability.
“One of the factors preventing foreign funds from flowing
into critical sector in the country is Nigeria’s policies and lack of
infrastructure.
This includes Policy direction, poor implementation of
policies to invest in infrastructure be it road be it power or rail which is
very important. Also, we need to do
something about our public private partnership (PPP), up until now we cannot
pinpoint a successful public private partnership in the country.
“Also you will discover that nothing has changed despite
government’s initiative on ease of doing business initiative. “There has been
refusal to implement this ease of doing business initiative. We have been to
the sea ports, airports and also some other places but very little has been
achieved as regards the ease of doing business initiative.
“There has been a lot of resistance, bureaucracy, lack of
transparency and corruption amidst the government sector which has hindered
some of the government’s policies on ease of doing business.
He said:, “So, for us to drive foreign investors into the
country, then we must do things right”.
For the most part of the last 18 years of Nigeria’s
democracy, there has been near collapse of infrastructure. The development has
been so bad that most businesses groan under intense pain due to rise in
overhead cost incurred in providing alternative infrastructure like road. In
fact, bad road network has become an albatross to the nation’s investors and
companies.
Roads leading to major industrial centres in the country
such as Sango-Ota in Ogun State and Apapa have been left in comatose to the
detriment of foreign and indigenous company to repair.
You will recall that recently Dangote group was given the
permission to repair the roads leading to the Apapa port which is the economy
hub of the country; with over N1 billion spent to fix the road after several
appeals to the Federal Government to fix all roads that lead to the port.
Also roads leading to the Agbara industrial estate have also
been left in comatose with billions of naira lost yearly to these roads.
Dunlop Nigeria Plc., the only surviving tyre manufacturing
company in Nigeria then, shut down its plants and sacked its workers before relocating to Ghana due to
lack of infrastructure and bad government policies Michelin also relocated to
the Ashanti land.
Recently an Indian company in Ogun state laid off no fewer
than 700 workers with allegations that the firm was relocating to a
neighbouring country.
Also in a recent chat with an indigenous investor who
pleaded anonymity, he decried the sorry state of infrastructure in the country
as the major reason why Nigeria had not and would not attract foreign
investment if government refused to do something.
“To be candid, I must confess that with the sorry state of
our roads and lack of quality infrastructure, we will continue to strive hard
to attract foreign investors
More so I am a business man and if it were possible for me
to relocate my company outside this country I will do, because you can’t
imagine how much we are losing daily. “But also looking at the chunk of workers
that will be thrown into the labour market after relocating is what is still
compelling some of us to stay
“So, government must do their best in ensuring that adequate
infrastructure is put in place that will help local manufacturers to remain in
business because when local manufacturers are closing shops how do you intend
to attract foreign investors.
Nigerian NewsDirect
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