Nigeria has low private capital to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate, which remains a major consideration that foreign investors consider in making their investments in countries, Country Managing Director at International Finance Corporation (IFC), Mrs. Eme Essien, has said.
Speaking yesterday at the FirstBank 125 years anniversary in Lagos, she said the level of risk and regulatory environment are deterring foreign capital inflows to the economy. According to her, fixing these challenges will attract more private capital to the economy.
She said the level of financial inclusion in Nigeria is also low, adding that more people should have access to banking services in the interest of the economy. Also speaking, Finance Minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said there is need for the country to save on constant basis and promote capital expenditure to boost infrastructure status in the country. According to her, the government is not only cutting cost, but diversifying Nigeria’s revenue bases and investing in key infrastructure like transportation.
“We need to invest more in the transport sector. We have promoted human capital development because of the interest we have in our people. We need to constantly develop people,” she said.
Minister for Budget & Planning, Ghana, George Ryan-Baffour, said Western countries are never interested in lending to Africa at low interest rates. He said the advanced countries only lend to Africa to provide basic amenities like water, but hardly lend to them to build factories.
“So, it is left for Africa to generate the capital to build your economies and not depend on advanced countries. There is no body outside the content that will lend us capital to invest in factories,” he said.
Managing Director/CEO FirstBank, Adesola Adeduntan, said the bank has survived in the last 125 years because of innovation, and transformation, which he said, is embedded in the banks Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). He said that financial inclusion is at the heart of FirstBank, with 750 branches across the country.
Adeduntan, had earlier said that: “As a long-standing institution, which even predates Nigeria as a unified entity, First Bank is entrenched in the nation’s development; woven into the very fabric of society, with our involvement in every stage of national growth and development. At the amalgamation, independence and through the seasons ever after, we have been here marching hand-in-hand with you and our dear nation. The Nation
