Dr. Andrew S. Nevin, the Advisory Partner and Chief Economist of the global consulting firm, PwC Nigeria office has advised the Federal Government of Nigeria to take urgent and critical steps to improve Nigeria’s rating in the global Ease of Doing Business Index. This he said will enable the country attract adequate foreign direct investments (FDIs) and foreign portfolio investments (FPIs) to drive economic growth.
Nigeria is currently ranked 169 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business index, according World Bank annual ratings. The rank of Nigeria improved to 169 in 2016 from 170 in 2015.
Dr. Nevin was speaking in Lagos on Monday, May 1st, 2017 at The Platform, an annual thought leadership conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre. He also noted that considering the strategic position of Lagos which accounts for 35% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is important that the federal government pays more attention to infrastructure and other socio-economic issues in the state. According to him, “Nigeria can’t be successful unless Lagos is successful and Sub-Saharan Africa can’t be successful unless Nigeria is successful”.
Continuing, he remarked that for Nigeria to claw its way out of recession and have an inclusive society, Nigerians need to pay more taxes while governments at the three tiers should improve on tax collection.
“The federal government does not have enough funds to invest to re-create the economy, therefore we need investments from abroad as either foreign direct investments (FDIs) or foreign portfolio investments (FPIs). Nigeria needs to invest 30% of its GDP to achieve minimum of 5% growth annually else we won’t make progress. Only 15% is available locally from the Federal government, the rest has to come from abroad as FDI and FPI. We are not assessing these foreign funds because of Nigeria’s low ranking in the ease of business index plus other challenges”, Dr. Nevin concluded.
-Uche Nworah