U.S Companies Invest $10.9bn in Nigerian Economy
The United States (US) secretary of commerce, Penny Pritzker, has disclosed that out of over 70 large American companies operating in Nigeria, a survey showed that the cumulative amount of direct investment committed to the country by just 11 of them since 2011 totaled $10.9 billion.
Pritzker said that taxes paid to the federal government in 2014 by the 11 companies amounted to $5.1 billion while the number of Nigerians employed stood at 24,104.
The secretary of commerce stated this recently during a high level delegation of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa held in Lagos.
The delegation, which was on a fact-finding, policy-oriented visit to Nigeria to review the opportunities and challenges of investment in the country, also disclosed that the projected new direct investment by the 11 companies in the next 12 months in a perfect policy and regulatory environment will be about $3.9 billion. There was a consensus that efforts should be deployed to encourage more US companies to invest in the non-oil sector in line with the policy focus of government to diversify the Nigerian economy. The main objective of the visit was to enhance trade and investment with Nigeria and other African countries.
During the visit Pritzker and her delegation held a roundtable and lunch with the president and chief executive officer of General Electric (GE) Nigeria, Dr Lazarus Angbazo, and members of a business association consisting of US companies operating in Nigeria’s oil and gas, power, agriculture, financial and banking services.
