The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, said the economic reforms embarked upon by Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu is making the country more attractive for foreign investors.
Montgomery, stated this on Wednesday while address’s press conference in Abuja.
He said Nigerians constitute 10% of visitors to the United Kingdom annually.
He expressed optimism that despite current challenges, inflation will drop in the coming months, considering the giant strides of the current administration.
“Now, the UK sees growing opportunities in Nigeria for a combination of reasons, but the main ones are the exciting economic reforms underway, so let me turn to those. And I’ve been very public previously about commending the big and bold economic reforms being taken forward by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu.
“We all know about the abolition of the fuel subsidy, and we all know about the unification of the exchange rate system.
“And my headline this morning is that these economic reforms are paying off, and these economic reforms are now making Nigeria more investable. And I realise that some of these reforms for ordinary people are painful.
“Inflation is still high, it’s in the 20% region, the mid-twenties, and it’s going to take time to bring that rate down, but we can see very good prospects for that rate coming down in the coming months and years.
“We agree with the report, the main messages of which are that the Naira is now more stable and predictability enables investment. Foreign exchange reserves are up, significantly up, so that makes Nigeria less risky.
“There’s been a very big increase in government revenue collection, not by raising tax rates but by tax administration and management.
“It’s almost a 90% increase in the amount of resources being collected, partly through administrative management and making sure that revenues from various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) reach the treasury.
“And that increase in revenue means reductions in the fiscal deficit. It means that the combination of increased revenue and the abolition of fuel subsidy has doubled federal allocations to the states, enabling more investment in infrastructure as well as public services.
“And most importantly, we’re seeing the growth rate in Nigeria tick up. So between 2015 and 2019, the growth rate in Nigeria was an average of 2%. It’s now, in the last 12 months, at least about 3.5%, but most positively, in the last quarter for which we have data, it’s up to 4.5%, 4.6%.
“So there’s a real uptick in growth, and there are other indicators that suggest that businesses are planning to expand, that business optimism is shifting.”
