Forced direct investment (Fodi)

Forced direct investment (Fodi)

[1] Unprecedented problems require unprecedented solutions. When you are faced with challenges that look insurmountable, that is when it is time to think outside the box sand do the unthinkable

[2] We all admire men like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Obafemi Awolowo, Kwame Nkrumah, etc but forget that when they originally came up with their ideas, they were scoffed at. Everyone thought Awo was mad to build a TV station in Ibadan when most European nations did not have one and nobody believed that the Akossombo Dam would work, supplying power to both Ghana and Burkina Faso. In the 60s, everyone thought electing black presidents in the US and South Africa was sheer madness. All this, however, came to pass because the men behind the ideas never gave up

[3] Now, Nigeria has a unique problem of having a population of 190m, being a mono economy, only generating a paltry gross domestic product (GDP) of $450bn and her annual budget is a lousy $20bn. Simply put, the figures do not add up, so something radical is required

[4] With presidential election campaigns underway, I want to introduce a new lexicon to our vocabulary. I have called it Forced Direct Investment (Fodi). It is the only way to diversify our economy, attract the required capital to build industries, develop our infrastructure and stop this crazy dependence on the proceeds of crude oil exports

[5] Look at some foreign direct investment (FDI)  figures for 2017:

US - $4.08bn

UK - $2.02bn

Brazil - $778,500m

Mexico - $499,400m

India - $367,500m

Indonesia - $247,700m

Chile - $208,800m

South Korea - $193,000m

Kazakhstan - $156,200m

South Africa - $139,200m

Malaysia - $133,200m

Nigeria - $118,000m

[6] In a nutshell, we are not attracting enough FDI into our economy. We can shout corruption as much as we like but unless we attract capital, we will not be able to expand our economy of fix our infrastructure. Our $20bn budget simply cannot cover one tenths of the requirements

[7] What we need is a radical Fodi programme that will compel multinationals to invest say 5% of all FDI in Africa. Can someone tell me why this is not enforceable? For decades, African nations have been forced to adopt IMF/World Bank economics, is it not time we turn the tables and say, hey, we no longer want your aid. What we want is trade, investment, technology transfer and manufacturing capacity

[8] I think this Fodi policy should also be backed with an aggressive domestic variants. Vladimir Putin has the one thing similar to this. He calls all the oligarchs into the Kremlin and tells them point blank: "We want to build a new power plant, submarine and shipping port. It will cost $20bn and you guys will fund it." Those who do not play ball get their assets seized and as we know with Putin, some have been jailed

[9] Now, Nigeria basically, needs a combination of a foreign Fodi policy and a domestic one to force the pace of development. Waiting for investors to come round in their own time, at their own pace and when all the conditions are right is a recipe for hunger. We may have all starved by the time they get round to doing this

[10] Now, who has the guts to force this issue? What Buhari and Atiku need to do is sell the policy to other African leaders first. If they can get Ramaphosa on board, then yes, I think the policy can be sold.