The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that Nigeria is safe for investment in spite of the de-marketing campaigns being waged against the country by the opposition parties.
Speaking at the Investors’ Fair, tagged “Africa Walk”, organized by the UNICORN Group in its Lagos Campus on Friday, the Minister said the fake narrative being promoted by the de-marketers was that Nigeria was a war zone or that there was religious persecution in the country.
Alhaji Mohammed said the Buhari Administration came into office in 2015 with the promise to revamp the economy, fight insecurity and curb corruption and that the administration has acquainted itself creditably on the three pillars.
“We were elected on the three pillars of the economy, security, and anti-corruption. In these three areas, I can confirm that we have not left any stone unturned to turn things around despite the numerous challenges,” he said.
While speaking on security, the Minister said that Boko Haram, which was controlling a large swath of territory in the North East of the country prior to the advent of the present administration, had been severely degraded and that ISWAP leadership had been eliminated.
He said 51,000 insurgents surrendered in the first three months of this year alone, while the government was now focusing on rehabilitation and rebuilding communities destroyed by the insurgents.
The Minister said in order to address the intractable farmer-herder clashes, the present administration was the first to bring a feasible solution to the conflict through the National Livestock Transformation Plan, which puts ranching at its core.
“We are also tackling banditry with the same vigour with which we have taken on Boko Haram and ISWAP, and it is a matter of time for bandits to be decimated too,” Mohammed said.
On the economy, he explained that the administration has re-geared the economy to stimulate domestic production and make the nation less vulnerable to external shocks.
He, however, said adverse global headwinds, such as the crash in oil prices, COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, have had adverse effects on the economy.
In the area of fighting corruption, the minister reeled out monetary recoveries from January to December 2021 as N152 billion; USD386 million; 1.1 million Pounds; 157,000 Euros; about 1.7 Saudi Riyals and
some more in Digital and other currencies.
According to him, the funds so far recovered have gone into the provision of infrastructure across the country.
The Chairman of the UNICORN Group, Mr. Akintoye Akindele, who conducted the minister round the startup incubation hubs on the UNICORN Campus, used the occasion to unveil one of the largest
companies in the world, Nvidia, which is into robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Agric, Media, gaming, entertainment, education and translation, among others.
Akindele said he was encouraging and supporting startups to go beyond profit maximization to contributing to nation-building.
GIK/APA