Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, has urged international investors not to allow security challenges deter them from partaking in Nigeria’s changing economic landscape.
Speaking when he featured on CNN on Tuesday, Tuggar said
Nigeria is being unfairly judged by isolated security incidents.
He added that the conflict in parts of the country is
regional and linked to instability in the Sahel.
“It’s very important to see the conflict for what it is.
It’s a regional conflict that has spilled over into Nigeria. It is not removed
from the conflict in the Sahel. It’s not removed from what happened in Libya
many years ago,” he said.
“It’s not removed from the proliferation of weaponry, of
fighters and climate change issues and so many other complex issues.”
Tuggar said the government is working with international
partners, including the United States, to target bandits and terrorist groups
in their hideouts.
The minister also said Nigeria is actively engaging
investors and pushing back against an exaggerated risk narrative around
Nigeria’s economy.
“We’re urging potential investors to treat us the same way,
to look at us the way that they look at other countries. The fact that there is
an incident in a country of 923,000 square kilometres does not mean you write
off the entire country,” he said.
He said geopolitical risk in Africa is often “overhyped”
compared to other regions, which discourages capital inflows.
Tuggar highlighted a number of macroeconomic and fiscal
reforms under the Bola Tinubu administration aimed at improving investor
confidence, including changes to the foreign exchange regime, tax reforms and a
reduction in corporate income tax.
“It’s very important we look at the progress that the Tinubu
administration has been making with macroeconomic reforms, with the tax reforms
that makes it easier for investors to come into Nigeria,” he said.
The minister said Nigeria’s foreign reserves had risen to
about $43 billion, while reforms had eased access to foreign exchange.
On security, he said Nigeria had recorded significant gains
against Boko Haram through regional cooperation, particularly the multinational
joint task force, which allowed cross-border pursuit of insurgents.
He said those efforts were disrupted following Niger
Republic’s withdrawal from the force after last year’s military coup.
Tuggar warned that persistent negative framing of Nigeria’s
security situation could itself worsen insecurity by encouraging extremist
groups to stage attacks for attention.
“So let us look at Nigeria holistically. Let us not continue
to dwell on some of these isolated incidents and define the entire country by
it,” he said.
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