Infrastructural decay, insecurity, others pushing investors away from Nigeria, says Lemo

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Tunde Lemo, has listed infrastructure decay, insecurity, and poor ease of doing business, among others as some of the reasons why foreign investors preferred Ghana over Nigeria.

Lemo stated this when he featured in a Channels Television’s programme monitored in Lagos on Tuesday.

Lemo said: “Our infrastructure is in decay, it is very seriously impacted negatively. Look at the textile industry for instance. When we had independence, the first 10 years, the Chinese and the Indians came here and set up textile companies.

“At the peak, we had over 170 textile companies but today, all of them have folded up, only six or seven are in operation, albeit marginally.

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“The reason is because the infrastructure in those climes is much better than what we have now. So, we need to free up resources beyond what the government can do, and then harvest all of these and put aggressively into revamping our infrastructure.

“Let’s take ease of doing business, for instance, we have improved by one or two notches but again are we as competitive as our comparators in Africa? Look at Ghana, Egypt, and Kenya, I believe we are still far behind.

“Some of the regional economic activities that are happening, you will be surprised that even Ghana is a better destination for foreign investors than Nigeria.

“Yes, we (Nigeria) pride in saying we have improved on ease of doing business but if you are improving from number 90 something to number 70 something and our peers are on number 4, 5, 6, then you know that we still have a long way to go.

“We need to ensure that the public sector units and agencies that are involved actually become much more efficient. Let’s look at the best three countries in Africa and give ourselves a target.