Officials from Nigeria, which has set a target of growing its economy to reach $1-trillion in the next decade, descended on Stellenbosch last week selling the country’s investment case following reforms ushered in by President Bola Tinubu since he took office two years ago.
The reforms meant to stabilise one of Africa’s largest economies include increasing foreign exchange reserves and a move to market-based pricing of petrol to address the enormous fiscal cost of subsidised pricing.
Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, deputy governor of economic policy at the Central Bank of Nigeria, told the Standard Bank African Markets Conference last week that the oil-rich country was poised for growth and presented opportunities for investors.
“The last two years has seen the government go through the most consequential reforms that have probably happened in the past two to three decades. These are reforms that have helped unshackle the economy,” he said.
“The Nigerian economic landscape if you look at the GDP growth over the past 10 years has been kept down by mainly two unsustainable subsidies the government has been paying. The first is the subsidy on petroleum products and the second is the subsidy on foreign exchange.”
The Nigerian government has since done away with both subsidies. The World Bank in its report titled “Staying the Course: Progress Amid Pressing Challenges”, zooms in on the need to sustain these policies while addressing structural issues to combat inflation and promote long-term investment, growth and job creation.
Sani Abdullahi said some of the opportunities available to investors include infrastructure, technology and digital finance, agriculture and minerals.
Several SA companies, including MTN and MultiChoice, have a significant presence in the West African country.
Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, is also in Nigeria via its Stanbic brand. Similar to SA, Nigeria also aims to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s greylist.
“In terms of financial sector reforms, we have really been trying to get Nigeria off the greylist. We are very confident that over the next few weeks, we will hear positive feedback,” Sani Abdullahi said.
Angola, another oil-rich country, also made its investment case at the conference.
Cristina Dias Lourenco, CEO of the country’s Bodiva stock exchange, said the economy was constrained by an infrastructure gap and limited access to foreign direct investment.
The reform agenda that Angola has embarked on includes selling off state-owned assets. It has completed 89 such transactions since 2019, with 74 more assets up for sale including Unitel, Angola’s largest mobile operator.
One of the largest infrastructure projects Angola has undertaken in recent years is the Lobito Corridor, which is connected by a stretch of railway infrastructure snaking through parts of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. The corridor, financed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, among other institutions, provides access to Eastern Africa and a pathway to the Atlantic Ocean.
Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, also used the conference to make a pitch on its ripe business environment.
“Kenya continues to make significant advancements in the services sector. We were ranked first in Africa in 2022 by Open Data Barometer ... we have an economy that is dynamic and diversified and doing fairly well on a number of measures when one looks at the performance of the economy,” Raphael Owino Otieno, director-general of the debt management office at Kenya’s National Treasury, said.
Kenya is one of SA’s largest trading partners in Africa, outside the Southern African Development Community. More than 60 SA companies operate in Kenya, with investments in various sectors.
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