lbe Kachikwu, minister of state
for petroleum resources, says Nigeria has the strongest economy in Africa.
He described the country as the
most profitable investment destination in the world.
Kachikwu made the remark during
the Nigerian oil and gas core strategic investors’ meeting in the US.
The meeting is aimed at
presenting investment opportunities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to
investors in the US.
The minister urged the diasporas
of Africa to come into the country and form permanent partnerships by investing
in “very critical areas” of the economy.
He assured them that their
investment would be safe and would yield an average of 25 percent on a yearly
basis.
“Infrastructure is key, the oil
sector alone has infrastructure deficit of over 30 billion dollars to get us to
where we should be,” he said.
“We need to be able to supply gas
sufficiently to power the entire country, and if we succeed in doing that over
the next 10 year-period, we would have a very booming economy.
“Nigeria still has the strongest
economy in Africa but we could double that, we could become quite frankly what
America is to the entire American diasporas for Africa.
“So I invite you to a country
that has its challenges but has huge opportunities probably the only country in
the world where the average returns on investment is in excess of 25 per cent a
year.
“This is massive. So the returns
are heavy, the resources are there and there is a huge opportunity to playing
in the field.
“It is now time quite frankly for
a lot of us who sit here as investors, as players, to begin to look to the
country of the future – Nigeria.”
He said since 2016, Nigeria
started major policies called the ‘7 Big Wins’ focusing on gas, infrastructure
growth, and trying to refine the country’s petroleum products locally.
He harped on the need for a
strong focus on local refining of crude oil, especially among private oil
companies, adding that any country which fails to do so is in the next few
years would face “massive problems”.
“So quite frankly, there’s an
urgency of yesterday for Nigeria to move into the forefront of leadership both
economically and politically in Africa and we need to begin to push that,” he
said.
“I’ve sent out a very loud
message out there that over the next four to five years, whether or not I’m
there, the reality is that oil companies that fail to focus on local
refineries, we are going after them.
“And as you are here and
producing the oil, the price is going to be the same so we are not saying
people should discount.
“But you must put that oil in
there, create jobs, because any member of OPEC who in the next few years cannot
refine most of its oil, is going to have massive problems.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com