A major foreign investor has announced plans to resume doing business in Nigeria following Tinubu’s blistering start to life as president. Successful tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Andela, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, who regularly plays host to large investors seeking in-roads into Africa, shared the development on social media.
According to him, the investor who, last year, already made the decision to pull out of the country completely, had a change of heart following a set of pro-business decisions the new president made upon assumption of office.
I’ve been in a lot of conversations with global investors this last week and the sentiment is so positive. I’ll quote one big one who had already planned to fully pull out of Nigeria as of end of last year.
‘Nigeria is back on the table’
I really hope we don’t mess it up
— E (@iaboyeji) June 9, 2023
On his first day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu confirmed he would not be continuing the corrupt fuel subsidy regime which mounted pressure on the country’s finances and exacerbated scarcity of forex. The latter point (forex scarcity) meant that foreign investors were forced to delay the repatriation of profits, a development which disheartened many and proved a red flag to the global investment community.
President Tinubu addressed this particular concern in his inaugural speech, declaring that his administration will allow for the free movement of profits accrued by investors. Importantly too, he expressed support for a unified foreign exchange rate system, unlike what previously obtained in which the government maintained a costly naira-dollar peg that presented arbitrage opportunities with the emergence of a parallel market where the two currencies traded at a rate determined by changing market forces.
By expressing his desire to see the multiple exchange rate system eliminated, President Tinubu allayed the fears of investors who long sought stability through a single exchange rate system that makes planning and projections easier.
Not mere pronouncements, Tinubu has backed the pledge with action. Nigeria will no longer foot the burden of subsidies and the country’s central banker under whose watch its foreign exchange system and monetary policy became a confusing patchwork that enabled corruption and discouraged investments has been suspended.
The investor who spoke to Iyin Aboyeji was reacting to these developments and his new disposition may well reflect the growing re-appraisal of Nigeria by the global investment community.