*Energy, transport account for $61.4bn; 17 mega-projects require $72.3bn
*Foreign investors to enjoy 100% foreign ownership, tax incentives
*FG promises clearer business rules, new incentives to attract investment
*Nigeria’s next reforms to focus on food, power, jobs, business efficiency — Oyedele
*Naira stability, rising reserves strengthen economy against shocks — Cardoso
*Dangote Group credits reforms for $17bn refinery investment
By Babajide Komolafe, Economy Editor
Bangkok, Thailand: The Federal Government has unveiled 65 investment projects requiring a total of $78.5 billion in capital, as it intensifies efforts to attract foreign investors into Nigeria’s energy, transport, agriculture, manufacturing and other critical sectors of the economy.
The government, which presented the investment opportunities to foreign investors at an Investors Forum organised by the Nigerian delegation to the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, said it was developing an investment Deal Room to provide prospective investors with detailed information on projects seeking funding and facilitate investment decisions.
Speaking on the initiative, Idris Bellow Osagie, Special Adviser on Economic Strategy to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, is designed to bridge the information gap between project sponsors seeking capital and investors looking for viable opportunities in Nigeria.
Osagie urged foreign investors to look beyond concerns about the Nigerian economy and take advantage of the investment opportunities being assembled by the government, insisting that the country was open for business.
He explained that the government had consulted federal and state governments, government agencies and private-sector participants to identify transactions requiring financing and assemble the relevant information in a centralised investment platform.
According to him, the Deal Room would provide prospective investors with information about projects, including their sponsors, capital requirements, minimum investment thresholds and other financial details needed to assess the opportunities.
The objective, he said, was to make it easier for investors to identify projects that matched their investment capacity and interests, obtain further information and engage directly with the relevant project sponsors and government officials.
Osagie acknowledged that investors might question some of the economic data and conditions in Nigeria. However, he urged them to assess the investment opportunities available alongside the challenges.
He said the government was working to make information on the projects accessible and facilitate meetings between prospective investors and relevant officials.
Describing the initiative as part of the government’s efforts to improve investment mobilisation, Osagie urged foreign investors to take a closer look at Nigeria.
He said the information on the projects would be updated, while investors could arrange meetings with relevant officials to obtain additional details.
The government, he added, was seeking to make it easier for investors to move from identifying opportunities to assessing specific transactions and engaging with project sponsors.
Energy, transport dominate $78.5bn pipeline
Details of the investment pipeline presented at the forum showed that oil, gas and power projects account for the largest share of the capital requirement, with 25 projects requiring $36.4 billion.
Transport and maritime follow with eight projects requiring $25 billion, while agriculture and agro-processing account for six projects requiring $9.8 billion.
Industry, manufacturing and mining have 17 projects requiring $6.6 billion, while technology, health and urban services account for nine projects with a combined capital requirement of $700 million.
The figures indicate that energy and transport alone account for $61.4 billion, or about 78 per cent of the total investment requirement.
The presentation also showed that the 65 projects offer opportunities across different investment sizes, ranging from $1 million to $15 billion.
Of the total, 29 projects require less than $100 million each, while 18 require between $100 million and $499 million. One project requires between $500 million and $999 million, while 17 projects require at least $1 billion each.
The 17 mega-projects account for $72.3 billion of the overall capital requirement, underscoring the concentration of financing needs among a relatively small number of large transactions.
The median capital requirement per project is $153 million, while 48 of the 65 projects require less than $500 million each.
The pipeline therefore offers opportunities for investors with different financing capacities, from those interested in relatively small transactions to institutional investors and strategic partners capable of participating in large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects.
FG outlines next phase of reforms
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, while speaking at the forum, outlined five priority areas for the next phase of economic reforms, identifying agriculture, power, inflation, regulatory efficiency and data transparency as critical to improving Nigeria’s investment environment.
Responding to questions from investors at the forum, Oyedele said the government was developing targeted interventions to address structural problems affecting production, business operations and the cost of living.
On agriculture and food inflation, he said the government was examining the underlying causes of rising food prices to ensure that interventions addressed the sources of inflationary pressure.
“One of the drivers of inflation is food, so we are now trying to piece it together to find where these problems are coming from,” he said.
Oyedele argued that the government needed to distinguish between the factors commonly blamed for inflation and the actual sources of price increases, stressing that policies must be based on evidence.
He said the government’s objective was not merely to reduce inflation to single digits but to ensure that it remained at that level.
“We know where the inflation and the pressure for it is coming from, and we’re going to tackle it there, not only just to bring it down to a single digit, but to keep it there,” he stated.
On the power sector, Oyedele said Nigeria could not achieve its economic ambitions without addressing electricity supply and transmission challenges.
“You cannot power a $1 trillion economy in darkness. It’s impossible,” he declared.
He said the government was examining strategies to address electricity pricing and transmission constraints, while improving efficiency across the power sector.
According to him, resolving the electricity challenge was critical to expanding production, lowering business costs and encouraging new investments.
The minister also identified regulatory inefficiency as a major constraint on private-sector investment, arguing that excessive regulations, unclear rules, multiple fees and licensing requirements impose substantial costs on businesses.
“We estimate that overregulation, regulatory burden, lack of clarity, and all of those excessive burdens that we put on businesses actually are costing us more than the combined revenue from corporate tax, personal income tax and VAT combined,” he said.
Oyedele described regulatory reform as an opportunity to improve the business environment without imposing significant additional costs on the government.
“If you ask me, what is the best example of a win-win outcome where the government wins, the private sector wins even more, and it costs the government nearly nothing? It’s solving the problem around regulatory efficiency,” he said.
He disclosed that the government had started developing an economic policy framework intended to improve regulatory consistency and prevent the arbitrary introduction of new rules, fees and licences.
“So you don’t just wake up one day and introduce a new rule or a new fee or new licenses. No, not anymore,” he stated.
The minister also promised improvements in the availability and credibility of fiscal and economic data, saying the government was working to make information more accessible and ensure timely updates.
He acknowledged that inconsistent data across government institutions had made it difficult for investors and analysts to assess Nigeria’s economic performance.
The Ministry of Finance, he said, was finalising arrangements to publish fiscal data on its website, with commitments to ensure that the information was accessible, credible and regularly updated.
FG targets decent jobs, offers new incentives
On employment, Oyedele said the government’s priority was to create decent jobs capable of improving living standards rather than focusing solely on the official unemployment rate.
“We are clear in our minds that we don’t just need to create jobs; we need to create decent jobs,” he said.
He noted that although Nigeria’s official unemployment rate was around five per cent, the poverty rate remained above 50 per cent, indicating that many Nigerians who were working were still struggling financially.
“Officially, our unemployment rate is around five per cent and poverty rate is higher than 50 per cent, so you have a lot of working poor,” he stated.
The minister said the government was also seeking to make it easier for investors to establish factories and access incentives through the Investment Deal Room.
On requests by investors for tax holidays, Oyedele said Nigeria’s reformed tax system had introduced an alternative incentive framework designed to reward qualifying investments.
“We’ve transformed our tax system. We have something that is better than a tax holiday. It’s called the Economic Development Incentive, where you get a tax credit,” he said.
He explained that the incentive was structured to minimise abuse because investors would have to meet the applicable requirements to qualify for the tax credit.
“The good thing about it is it’s hard to abuse, so you have to earn it to get the credit,” he added.
Oyedele said the Deal Room would also guide investors through the process of establishing factories and pursuing investment opportunities in the country.
“They will show you, they will handhold you, and make it easy for you to do what you have to do,” he said.
He further disclosed that the government was working with monetary authorities to improve liquidity and ensure investors could exit naira-denominated investments without additional risk.
On taxation of government securities, he said the government was committed to providing clarity so investors could make decisions based on predictable rules.
“I cannot guarantee you that there will be no tax, but I can guarantee you there will be clarity so you can price correctly,” he stated.
The minister also said the government was engaging the National Bureau of Statistics to improve the timeliness and usefulness of economic data, including information on jobs and producer prices, to support more effective policy decisions.
Cardoso links stability to reforms
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said monetary reforms had helped strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to withstand external shocks, pointing to exchange-rate stability, naira appreciation and improved external reserves.
In his remarks at the forum, Cardoso said Nigeria’s external reserves had reached their highest level in 18 years, providing a stronger buffer against global economic headwinds.
He argued that the reforms implemented by the authorities had helped prepare the economy to withstand pressures arising from geopolitical tensions and international trade uncertainties.
“What we’ve been able to accomplish in terms of having very robust external reserves, highest in 18 years, is also something that affects the ordinary person,” he said.
He explained that without the stronger external buffers, Nigeria could have faced some of the pressures confronting other economies, potentially with more severe consequences.
Cardoso also linked the relative stability and appreciation of the naira to the reforms, saying the exchange-rate performance had helped cushion the economy against external pressures.
“The good thing was that the reforms and the policies were things that were thought through, and we started to implement early enough, such that when those headwinds started to come, not only from the war, but also from the discussions around putting on tariffs, our exchange rate has held stable. In fact, it appreciated,” he said.
The CBN governor maintained that exchange-rate stability had broader implications for ordinary Nigerians, even when the benefits were not immediately apparent to households.
“What does this mean for me? I’m not feeling it. You do, you definitely feel it. If it wasn’t there, then you would feel it in a very negative way,” he said.
Cardoso identified inflation as one of the biggest threats to household welfare, describing it as a tax on the poor because it erodes purchasing power and makes basic goods and services less affordable.
“The reason why we felt it was important to give ourselves this as a target is to recognise the fact that inflation is probably the biggest tax on the poor, and so it is critical that we bring it down to levels that are more manageable,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria’s inflation rate had declined from about 34 to 35 per cent to around 15 per cent, describing the reduction as significant but insufficient.
“I mean, in this instance, inflation has gone from about 34 per cent, 35 per cent to about 15 per cent, and yes, that’s a significant decrease, very significant. But what we are saying basically is that we are not going to rest,” he stated.
Cardoso said the medium-term objective remained to bring inflation down to single digits, adding that the CBN’s transition towards inflation targeting would improve transparency and help the public understand the direction of monetary policy.
He said the combination of lower inflation, exchange-rate stability and stronger external reserves would help establish a more stable foundation for investment and economic growth.
Dangote Group endorses reforms
Supporting the government’s investment drive, Hassan Mammud, Group Chief Economist, Dangote Group, said the consistency and credibility of Nigeria’s fiscal and monetary policies had helped restore investor confidence and improve the operating environment for businesses.
Mammud, who represented the Dangote Group at the forum, said the reforms had helped the conglomerate overcome difficulties associated with the previous economic environment and improve its ability to plan and make investment decisions.
He said the transparency and credibility of monetary policy had significantly improved the group’s capacity to make projections and stabilise its operations, particularly in relation to its investment of about $17 billion in the Dangote Refinery.
“The transparency and the credibility we have seen in that has significantly enabled the Dangote Group to have good projections and was able to come out of the woods from his investment of about $17 billion dollars in the refinery,” he said.
“That cannot happen in an economy where there are no consistencies, where there are no credibility of fiscal and monetary policy, and also the incentives that goes with operating in an export-free zone.”
Mammud described the group’s experience as a confidence-builder for prospective investors considering Nigeria and other African countries, arguing that investment decisions depended not only on market opportunities but also on the credibility of government policies and the regulatory environment.
He urged foreign investors to take advantage of the opportunities available in Nigeria.
“Please come into Nigeria, bring your investment. Nigeria is actually a symbol to other African countries now,” he said.
Mammud also cited the Dangote Group’s investment expansion into Kenya as an indication of the potential for Nigerian businesses to support industrial development across Africa.
He stressed that investors needed to be bold, but added that such boldness depended on credible policies and regulatory reforms.
Investor protections, incentives
To strengthen the investment proposition, the presentation outlined several protections and incentives available to foreign investors.
These include permission for 100 per cent foreign ownership in most sectors and full repatriation of capital and profits, subject to obtaining a Certificate of Capital Importation.
The government also highlighted 17 double-taxation agreements and 13 bilateral investment treaties, alongside Nigeria’s membership of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Under the incentives presented, qualifying capital expenditure may attract a tax credit of five per cent per annum for five years through the Economic Development Tax Incentive.
The measures are intended to address investor concerns about ownership, returns, taxation and investment protection.
Interested investors were encouraged to review the 65 project profiles available through the online investment directory and the Projects Nigeria Special Edition, which provide details of project sponsors, deal structures and scorecards.
Osagie also encouraged investors to visit the Deal Room office, where Ministry of Finance officials and Nigerian business leaders could provide further information on individual projects.
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