Nigeria's Federal Government said that arrangements had been concluded to promote inflow of foreign direct investment in Nigeria by wooing American investors to set up companies.

The decision is a fallout of the signing of trade and investment framework agreement between Nigeria and the United States of America (USA) in Washington DC recently.

Chairman, Strategic Agenda and consultant to the Federal Government on U.S.-Nigeria Trade and Investment Framework, Funso Abiri explained that the move was initiated by the government as a result of poor inflow of direct investment by American companies in Nigeria.

He observed that before now, a lot of Americans shun direct investment in Nigeria on the ground that doing business in Nigeria was too risky for them.

"Now with the official backing of the U.S. Government under President Barrack Obama, Nigeria is now positioned for more investment opportunities coming from U.S. and enhance access to various grants and subsidies that would come from the agency," Abiri said.

Abiri, who was appointed as consultant by the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry recently, noted that apart from oil transaction, Nigeria's trade relationship with the U.S. was on the negative side for Nigeria.

He explained that this negative trend on the side of Nigeria had continued despite the initial agreement signed by the two countries in 2001 to work very closely so as to promote investment in the two countries and help Nigeria to boost its foreign direct investment.

"The success of the bilateral relationship meeting between Nigeria and U.S. in March 2009 exposed the failure of Nigeria to benefit of foreign investment in non-oil sector from the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) signed in 2001.

The meeting witnessed the participation of various stakeholders in Nigeria and the U.S. from relevant organisations including ministries and parastatals," he recalled.

In order to improve inflow of investment, he announced that the two countries had agreed to hold a business forum in three cities of the U.S. in February 2010. The cities include Atlanta, Houston and Chicago. This forum expected to cover small and medium enterprises (SME), energy, agriculture, tourism, environment, marine, infrastructural and construction development in Nigeria.

Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


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