The United States Consul-General in Nigeria, Mr John Bray, on Thursday
\nsaid that Nigeria would be able to overcome her current economic recession
\nby attracting more Foreign Direct Investment.Bray gave the advice in Lagos
\nat this year\u2019s Annual Lecture of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Alumni
\nAssociation. The theme of his keynote address was \u201cThe Challenges and
\nOpportunities of Managing a Recessionary Economy: The American
\nExperience.”<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the most populous country on the continent and as the largest economy
\nin Africa, Nigeria clearly stands to gain from increasing its
\nattractiveness to foreign investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs in the case for the U.S. economy, FDI offers much to contribute to
\nNigeria\u2019s ability to grow its economy and increase its global
\ncompetitiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that Nigeria will use the current recession as an opportunity to
\nadopt and implement economic reforms to address challenges that existed
\nbefore the current recession,\u2019\u2019 he said. Bray said that the U.S. would
\ncontinue to be the number one destination for foreign direct investment
\nbecause of foreign investors\u2019 confidence of fair treatment, profit
\nrepatriation and rule of law.<\/p>\n
According to him, the United States remains committed to helping Nigeria
\nrealise her economic potential. Chief Olabintan Famutimi, Patron of the
\nHubert Humphrey Fellowship Alumni Association, who noted that recession
\nwas a universal phenomenon, said that Nigeria\u2019s current economic recession
\nwas self-inflicted.<\/p>\n
Famutimi said that Nigeria had over these years depended solely on
\nrevenue from crude oil, whose price was being determined by fluctuating
\ninternational market forces. The Association\u2019s Patron also noted that
\nwhen crude oil was booming, Nigerian governments paid lip-service to
\neconomic diversification, as well as neglected other sectors of the
\neconomy.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecession is a universal phenomenon and almost all countries have had
\ntimes weathering the storms of it, including the countries that are
\nregarded as the most prosperous today.<\/p>\n
\u201c The United States, for instance, in her 238years of existence have spent
\ncumulatively, about 87years in recessions, cueing from about 47 recessions
\nrecorded.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut importantly, the United States has on various occasions come out
\nbetter, stronger and more defined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must also state that Nigeria is a very peculiar nation, whose
\nrecession can be described as \u2018self-inflicted\u2019, because we walked right
\ninto it through careless leadership,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States Consul-General in Nigeria, Mr John Bray, on Thursday said that Nigeria would be able to overcome her current economic recession by attracting more Foreign Direct Investment.Bray gave…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n