[SPECIAL REPORT]
Nigeria moved up in the global Ease of Doing Business rankings;
rail lines are being built to carry passengers and bulk cargo;
foreign direct investment has started to fl ow in again; Nigeria Air
has been re-launched to come into operation and provide direct
air links between Nigeria and countries with which we have
singed Bilateral Air Services Agreements.
them import licenses and permission to rent and operate retail
shops, even if they are only for Nigerian products.
Finally, the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA)
which the two governments have been negotiating for years
should be speedily concluded; especially since Nigeria
is ready to launch Nigeria Air. This will further improve
connectivity between India and Nigeria. I have stated
elsewhere, and I repeat here, that Africa as a whole, and
Nigeria in particular, are now looking East. India is a huge
political, military and economic power in that part of the
world so she is a crucial factor in the pivot.
VISION 2025
• Nothing like Vision 2025 has been offi cially adopted or
announced by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
• The extant one is Vision 2020 which was conceptualized
during the military regime of General Sani Abacha in the
mid-90s and has been upheld till date. Its core objective
is as follows:-
“By 2020 Nigeria will be one of the 20 largest economies
in the world, able to consolidate its leadership role in Africa
and establish itself as a signifi cant player in the global
economic and political arena”.
The potentials of Nigeria’s economy have never been
questioned by the outside world but corruption, policy fl ip-
fl ops, lack of sustained planning and visioning, security and
infrastructure challenges have all played their part to slow
down the realization of those potentials.
The greatest obstacle however, has been Nigeria’s failure
to diversify its economy and its continued reliance on crude
oil - which is not only a decreasing asset but a commodity
which is subject to both wild price fl uctuations and also in
danger of being replaced by alternative sources of energy
in the near future. The most precipitous decline in oil
price occurred just as the present government of President
Muhammad Buhari came into power in 2015, from a high
of over $100 during his predecessor’s time, to as low as $28
10 • Nigeria-India• 2018
per barrel at a certain period.
Vision 2020 is however back on course with President
Buhari’s dogged pursuit of his three core programmes which
are: ensuring security, fi ghting corruption and growing the
economy. As a result Nigeria has offi cially come out of the
recession it went into in 2016 with a forecast growth rate of
1.5 percent for 2018, and to rise thereafter. Nigeria moved up
in the global Ease of Doing Business rankings; rail lines are
being built to carry passengers and bulk cargo (whose weight
have been damaging the roads); foreign direct investment has
started to fl ow in again; Nigeria Air has been re-launched
to come into operation and provide direct air links between
Nigeria and countries with which we have singed Bilateral
Air Services Agreements; banking and fi nancial services are
being strengthened; our foreign reserve now stands at over
$47bn from less than $30bn at the time President Buhari
came into offi ce, and this is in spite of earning lower revenue
from oil; agriculture is growing and imports of rice, a staple,
have been cut by 90 percent. Above all, when Dangote
refi nery - which has a capacity to refi ne 640,000 barrels of
oil per day - will come into operation at the end of 2019, it
will stop the importation of refi ned products which not only
gulps a considerable portion of our foreign exchange, but
in the past, also provided avenues for corruption (through
mismanagement of subsidies that the federal government
gave to keep transportation costs within Nigeria moderate
and thus control infl ation). Mining, ICT, oil, agriculture and
infrastructure development are nodal sectors in which the
diversifi cation of Nigeria’s economy are being aggressively
pursued. Solar energy has huge but as yet untapped potentials.
Public/Private Partnerships are encouraged, as are
completely private ventures. Export free zones also abound
with generous incentives and Indian companies are among
the leaders in taking advantage of those opportunities. Our
National Investment Promotion Commission is doing a great
job in coordinating all these initiatives. It can be read on
www.invest-nigeria.com.