Okonjo-:Iweala Urges Nigeria To Deliberately Target Global Investors At Davos:
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has asked the Federal Government to deliberately target global investors and supply chain relocations to reduce import dependence, deepen manufacturing, and drive job creation.
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has asked the Federal Government to deliberately target global investors and supply chain relocations to reduce import dependence, deepen manufacturing, and drive job creation.
She spoke on Wednesday at Nigeria House during the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos.
At a panel discussion titled “From Scale to Capital: Financing Nigeria’s Role as Africa’s Digital Trade and Infrastructure Anchor,” the WTO Chief stressed that rising geopolitical tensions, particularly between the United States and China, have accelerated supply chain diversification.
Present on the panel was also, the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Dr Oludapo Olusi.
“In addition, tariffs and trade restrictions have incentivised companies to reconsider reliance on dominant suppliers, prompting the relocation or diversification of production hubs.
“As you said, some good reforms are being pursued right now. I think they need to yield to job creation. That was what I said to His Excellency—that we need to move from stabilisation to job creation, because that is where we are lacking. It is not going to be overnight, but they are moving in the right direction. What I think they need to do is map where the opportunities are.
“What I would like to see is a continued effort to attract investment into the country, because there is an opportunity now to attract these supply chains. If there is one thing I would say, it is that everything we can do to showcase Nigeria as a country worthy of investment is what we should be doing.
“And we should deliberately have strategies to go after those investments and investors—to go to China, the US, whatever it takes—to come and invest in our country. As companies seek to diversify supply chains, a lot of that movement is still within Asia. "Diversification is moving from China but still within Asia, and India is another destination.
According to her, these disruptions present an opportunity for Nigeria to capture a share of global supply chains, even as this would require aggressive marketing of the country to prospective investors.
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