#NES26: Public policies in Nigeria don’t give investors confidence — Doyin Salami

The chairman of the presidential Economic Advisory Council, Doyin Salami, says public policies do not engender confidence in private investors to invest in Nigeria, even though the country, being capital deficient, needs investment to push its growth.

In his assessment of Nigeria’s history of policy making over the last 30-40 years, Mr Salami said external shocks are shifted to the private sector, unlike in other countries where the shocks are kept within the government.

Speaking as a panelist at the 26th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit, Mr Salami said policies should be developed to encourage investors in the country.

He said Nigeria will need about $100 billion a year for three decades to meet up on infrastructure alone, which he said the government alone cannot provide

“$100 billion a year for three decades is what Nigeria needs to put on the table. And the entire budget of Nigeria’s governments, all of federal and the 36 states, is about $60 billion, so even if they spend all their money on infrastructure, they ain’t getting anywhere,” he said.

“So we’ve got to come back to that point, about, if this economy is going to grow meaningfully, I see no reason why the Nigerian economy is going to say it cannot grow 6,7,8 percent.

“I honestly don’t see the reason. But it needs investment and if it is going to get investment, we are now talking about private investment. Look, the way we treat private investors, forgive me, does not engender confidence.”

He advises the country to “work on policies that engender confidence about the country’s direction, policies that really understand where the world is going.

“Policymakers must understand that it is easy to undermine confidence in policy but very difficult to recover that confidence,” he said.