The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has debunked recent statement credited to the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi that he was in the U.S and refused to attend an investors’ summit, NAN reports. According to the report, Sanusi was quoted to have accused the minister and some others for being absent at U.S-Nigeria Investors’ Forum even when they were in the U.S. He had queried that their action
The Minister in a statement issued by his media aide Mr Idang Alibi said the he was at another investors meeting in the United Kingdom contrary to reports.
”The office of the Minister has recently been beleaguered with various media reports concerning the absence of the Minister of State at the recent US-Nigeria Investment Summit held in Washington, DC.
”It is important to note that Kachikwu was not in the United States of America as reported and was not billed to attend the summit.
”He was in the United Kingdom where he had just concluded the facilitation of a key investment meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Royal Dutch Shell plc. led by the CEO, Bernardus Van Beurden, in London.
”He is committed to delivering the major aspirations of the #7BigWins of which Business and Investment Drive is a key theme”.
Recall that the Emir had described as unacceptable the attitude of Nigerian ministers and governors who were billed to speak at a special function to attract investors to the country at the Nigerian house in Washington.
The emir, who spoke with reporters after the session on Private Equity and Financing, chaired by Nigerian business man, Mohammed Indimi, Chairman/CEO Oriental Energy Resource, expressed disappointed at the lack of interest exhibited by the Nigerian officials towards the event.
“We had a meeting today with investors, we were supposed to start by 9am and we started at 10. When I came in they took me to the ambassadors office to sit down, when investors were waiting down there. We had a list of people who were to be there, vice president, minsters, some of them are in town, but they didn’t come. You invite top investors, your ministers are in Washington and they do not come to talk to the investors about Nigeria. That is not how you attract investors.
“We’ve got a large, vibrant population. We have a long history of industrialisation; we have agricultural land and oil. The main issue is understanding where the growth drivers are and looking at where the banking constraints are.
“So, I keep saying if you look at Nigeria growing at 7 percent year on year before the recession and this growth was coming with 4,000 – 5,000mw for electricity, imagine what it would be when you generate 40,000, 50,000mw. If you look at it, all the opportunities are not explored; for example, trade across the South with North Africa because we focused entirely on the coast.
If you look at the diversification impact of getting a non-oil export that would protect this economy from the shocks. If you look at all the things being done by Dangote Refinery that would reduce our imports, particularly petroleum imports, and conserve our foreign exchange; then we talk about technology, if we have the mobile penetration etc. If these opportunities are to become reality, then we need to have the right policies."
