President Tinubu has travelled to Brazil and St Lucia in search of foreign direct investment. If we had an Aso Rock Policy Unit, they would have drawn up plans for him that included setting targets like this

Ayo Akinfe

Nigerian foreign direct investment (FDI) targets for 2026:

[1] Food processing - $20bn

[2] Railways - $15bn

[3] Power generation - $10bn

[4] Automobile assembly plants - $10bn

[5] Steel production - $5bn

[6] Solid mineral processing plants - $5bn

[7] Pharmaceuticals - $5bn

[8] Leather processing - $5bn

[9] Green energy - $5bn

[10] Cosmetics and beauty products - $5bn

If we can attract $85bn in FDI in 2026 and then get domestic industrialists to invest a further $15bn in the economy, we should be fine. As things stand today, we are facing a crisis because Chinese overseas investment is slowing down and the Nigerian state no longer has the cash to take out stakes in commercial ventures.

Something simply has to give or Nigeria will collapse beneath our feet. President Tinubu has to attract about $85bn worth of investment if he wants to take 90m people out of poverty and end our designation as the poverty capital of the world.

By my calculations, about 30m sustainable and remunerative new jobs must be created to end the current scourge of terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry, etc. I would like to see a masterplan but that can only happen if we have an Aso Rock Policy Unit, so maybe creating that should be one of the president's major priorities.

ayoakinfe@gmail.com