Monday, March 26, 2012

NSE, CBN, UBA showcase Nigeria to UK investment community

LAGOS — The abundant investment opportunities in Nigeria as well as the statistics to back the fact that the country remains an investors haven and gateway to Africa was the fulcrum of presentations and discussions by the leadership of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN; Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE and United Bank for Africa, UBA, at the investment gathering in London during the Nigerian Economic and Financial Markets Conference organised by Bloomberg, the multinational financial news corporation, weekend.Despite the challenging market conditions, Nigeria, according to them, is projected to continue on the growth path over the next couple of years, presenting increasing opportunities for corporate financiers, sovereign investors, corporations and financial intermediaries.

In his presentation on “Doing Business in Nigeria: Creating Wealth from Opportunities in Africa’s Largest Market,” Mr. Phillips Oduoza, CEO of UBA, said the growth would be fuelled by activities in the oil and gas, power, infrastructure, manufacturing and agricultural sectors of the economy.

He emphasised that government reforms in these sectors and the attendant multiplier effects of the linkages between them in terms of job creation and increased consumer spending, would be very significant in the years ahead.

He told the London gathering: “As Nigeria’s truly pan-African bank with operations in 18 other African countries as well as London, New York and Paris, UBA is well positioned to help potential investors capitalise on these opportunities in Nigeria and the wider African continent.”

Also speaking at the conference, CBN Deputy Governor and Coordinator of the Financial Systems Strategy 2020, Mr. Suleiman Barau, gave an update on the financial system reforms and highlighted that the planned Nigerian International Financial Centre, NIFC, presents more than N35 trillion worth of opportunities in the near term.

He said there existed about $218 billion worth of financial intermediation opportunities within the financial services sector, especially in mobile money, insurance, pensions and real estate.

In a similar vein, he stated that given the relative size today, traditional strongholds of the Nigerian economy such as power, agriculture, infrastructure and oil and gas sectors presented more that $355billion of investment opportunities.

He added that there was a stronger domestic financial market in Nigeria today owing to the recent reforms by the CBN which were hinged on four pillars: enhancing the quality of banks; establishing financial stability, enabling the evolution of a healthy financial sector and ensuring that the sector contributes to the real economy.



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