Vice President Kashim Shettima has urged foreign investors to take advantage of the opportunities in Nigeria as the country is ready for business.
A statement by the Director, Information, Office of the Vice President, Mr Olusola Abiola said Shettima made the call in his remarks at a side event of the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit.
The theme of the summit is, “Scaling up of multi-stakeholder collaboration and investments in the implementation of the food systems pathways in Nigeria.”
The vice president noted that the combination of Nigeria’s young, energetic population and the agenda of the new administration placed the country far ahead of others in the region.
” We have the capacity of transforming the demographic bulge into demographic dividends or it will be the demographic disaster that will consume all of us. He said.
“Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation on earth and the population is young. The median age is 19.”
“With determined leadership and the support of the global community, we believe, as eternal optimists do, that there is hope on the horizon,” the Vice President added.
The vice president expressed hope that the expected transformation could take place on the back of what he described as “building blocks that already exist in Nigeria.
On improving collaboration between government and the private sector, Shettima said focusing on agribusiness and the understanding that investment that would transform the food system would come from the private sector, with the government providing the enabling environment would scale up investment.
”Nigerian government, together with domestic and international finance institutions, scaled up the Value Chain Development Programme approach for the Special Agro Processing Zones Programme with an impressive investment of 521 million dollars from the IFAD, from the IsDB, and from the AfDB. He assured.
Present at the event were Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to FAO/IFAD/WFP in Rome; Mr Yaya Olaniran, Nigerian Ambassador to Italy, Mr Mfawa Abam; Deputy Chief of Staff to the President in the Office of the Vice President, Ambassador Ibrahim Hadejia, among other senior government officials.
FRCN Abuja/Adetutu Adetule
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