When President Tinubu goes to the White House later this week, he should tell President Trump that the only way to end violence in Nigeria is to create jobs and prosperity and we badly need US FDI to do this

Ayo Akinfe

[1] In 2024, US foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide totalled $151bn

[2] Within the US itself, the total FDI cumulative investment increased to $5.71trn during the course of 2024

[3] Every industrialised nation worldwide takes FDI very seriously because it opens up new markets for their goods, creates ancillary employment and the returns on investment are generally high

[4] I have just been looking at the US FDI figures for 2024 and here are the top five - Japan $819.2bn, Canada $811.7bn, Germany $677.3bn, UK $635bn and Ireland $353bn

[5] One striking feature about US FDI is that the investments in places like Luxembourg, Singapore, Bermuda and Switzerland are in financial services. Now, Nigerian interest rates are very high, so we are actually a very sound location for pension and investment funds to lodge their cash

[6] If you look at US investment in China, in 2023 it was $126.3bn and for Mexico it was $159.22 in 2024. while for India it was $5bn in 2023. In all three nations, the investment was mainly in manufacturing and heavy industry

[7] Given the chronic lack of manufacturing capacity in Nigeria today, we desperately need FDI in heavy industry. If we can attract the kind of US investment we are seeing in Brazil, Mexico and India, we will be home and dry

[8] Post-Covid-19, many US companies started relocating from China as they came to the conclusion that planting all your eggs in one basket is dangerous. If you look at all the main industrial capital investments, they go to populous nations like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, etc. It is President Tinubu’s job to tell the US that it is unacceptable for Nigeria not on that list

[9] In 2023, US FDI in Nigeria only totalled a paltry $1.87bn. How will poverty, unemployment, violence, kidnapping, religious tension, ethnic mistrust, terrorism, banditry, etc, not grow and spiral out of control when less than $2bn is invested in over 200m people?

[10] As things stand, Nigeria needs FDI or we die. Without it, we will have more terrorism, more out is school children, my Almajiris, more poverty, more dilapidated infrastructure, more corruption, etc. Just to put things into perspective, during the 2022/23 fiscal year, India attracted a total FDI inflow of $70.97bn. I fully expect President Tinubu to tell President Trump that we expect to see something similar in Nigeria this year.

ayoakinfe@gmail.com