Security is a fundamental factor that attracts foreign investors-Peter Obi
The former Governor of Anambra State, and Vice presidential candidate under the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi, has said that security is a fundamental factor that attracts foreign investors in Nigeria.
Obi stated this on Tuesday while speaking at The Platform, a programme by the Covenant Christian Centre to mark Nigeria’s 59th Independence Day.
While giving his insights on how to approach the economy with pragmatic and very simple ideas, the former governor stated that the number one job of any government in any society is to provide security for lives and properties.
He said,”no government exists without securing the lives and properties of the citizens. If you cannot do that then the government does not exist.”
He urged that Nigeria needs to do something very quickly and drastically on its present security situation, emphasizing that one of the major things needed in the country to grow its economy is an investment but questioned how secured the nation is for investors.
He said, ”we are borrowing but it is not impacting our growth. One of the crises we face as a country is the high level of our debt accumulation.
“Today Nigeria’s debt is about 28 trillion dollars. Our debt to GDP is about 25%. Singapore’s debt to GDP is 100%. In Singapore, you can only borrow for capital projects that will pay itself back.”
The former governor noted that Nigeria is the home of the highest number of poor people on Earth, and in every minute, six Nigerians fall into poverty.
He said investors need peace to enjoy their dividends because nobody is going to invest in an unsecured place no matter how huge the profit seems.
Responding to areas of education and unemployment, he said that a growing economy invests at least 4% to 5% of the GDP in education, adding that ”education is not an expense, it is an investment. The more you invest in education, the better your society.”
”Unemployment and under-employment are the greatest contributors to the challenges to the growth of our economy. When people don’t have jobs, we will have terrorists and criminals in society,” he noted.
