Abdulraham Bello Dambazzau |
For many
years, Nigeria has desired that foreign investors come into the country with
train-loads of money for investment. Government officials had flown to
countries far and near in search of foreign direct investments. Unfortunately,
despite the obvious knowledge that the country has yet to prepare itself to be
attractive to investors, officials had gone through all the world’s financial
and business centres for the elusive investors. Even then, those who dared met
with woes enough to cause them never to consider a second trial. Little wonder
that much success was never made. How could Nigeria have been successful with
the efforts and resources deployed when it had both tacitly and explicitly
shown that doing business in the country, when compared with other countries,
was not only daunting but very risky? Within the comity of nations, Nigeria has
always been ranked abysmally low in ease of doing business.
To
underscore that fact, fingers had been pointed to the subsisting issues of
inadequate, ineffective or even non-functional infrastructure, policy
inconsistencies, multiple taxation, high interest rates that cannot support
gainful productivity, red-tapism, poor attitude to work, wide-spread corruption
across both public and private sectors of the economy. There are also issues of
insecurity, dwindling economic purchasing power anchored on low per capita
income of Nigerians, inefficient justice system and over-bearing bureaucracy.
Most of these challenges that have metamorphosed into severe intractable
problems can still be resolved by a government which appreciates that their
removal will sign-post the country as ripe and viable for destination of
foreign direct investments.
With the Interior Minister’s commissioning of the 28 centres, it would appear the government has finally woken from a deep sleep. But everyone who cares about how inflow of FDIs to any country can be influenced knows that the step taken by the present administration is about the first and a very good one for that matter. This, though, is subject to ensuring that those who will operate it are properly trained and reoriented to proving that new and better service delivery annals have dawned in Nigeria. Some of the other necessary steps to be taken are that the Nigerian missions abroad should not only promote this development but also ensure that visa and residence permit applicants have noteworthy and unforgettably positive experiences. To this end, every effort of the government should be turned towards satisfying at least, the common or basic needs of the embassies and missions as well as the welfare of their officials. Apart from positive contributions of human capital, the roles of appropriate and modern technology cannot be down-played.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s pronouncement that Nigeria would soon become the irresistible foreign direct investment destination will become a truism only when these issues are resolved. Yes, Nigeria needs to encourage easy access to the country in order to generate enough international investment inflow.
Yes,
achievement of this objective will greatly assist in revitalising the economy
and pulling it out of recession quicker than many envisage. However, it stands
to good reason and perhaps, caution that the government and people of Nigeria
should, upfront, be mindful of the security implications of granting visa and
residence permits without thorough due diligence on applicants. Therefore, all
necessary measures must be put in place to ensure that only genuine and
credible applicants are the ones to be granted such important security
documents as otherwise, the country and the citizenry may be exposed to dangers
and risks associated with global terrorism, money laundering and other vices.
It is hoped
that the government would, therefore, use all its apparatus to make sure that
the security of the nation and its inhabitants is not impaired through the 28
centres for Combined Expatriate Residence Permits and Alien Cards. (Guardian)
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