Delivering a lecture titled, “President Goodluck Jonathan’s economic policies: Dealing with the challenges of development”, at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington DC, foreign affairs minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, said, “We are going to create investment centres in about six zones of the world and each zone will be managing a number of clusters of countries and they will be able to deal with all your enquiries.”
He said what the government was doing now was to empower the nation’s embassies, especially those in strategic capitals of the world, like Washington, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing, to have linkages with the Trade and Investment Ministry back home.
“Because we don’t want you (investors) to go to the wrong place, so your first place of call will be the embassy where you are, so the embassies would be equiped to be able to respond to your enquiries, to be able to link you up, with either state governments or ministries, and you will be properly guided,” Ashiru said.
The minister, who noted that Nigeria is one of the top three investment destinations in Africa, said to sustain this position, it had become more imperative to further enhance the environment for investment and economic development.
He said the decision of President Jonathan to positively turn around the nation’s economy had necessitated the formulation and implementation of economic policies through a holistic agenda that would build on past successes and avoid errors previously committed.
He said the aim was to transform the nation’s economy with a strategy that gives cognisance to continuity, consistency and commitment (3Cs). Ashiru said that the transformation agenda of the government prioritises the growth of the economy by improving on past positive efforts, correcting past mistakes and laying the foundation for accelerated development.
He told his audience that key economic-related ministries of finance, power, trade and investment, and agriculture were headed by Nigerians formerly based in the Diaspora and who had established professional reputation of quality performance.
