Minister woos Nigerians in Diaspora, foreign investors with cheap labour

Even as the battle for the N18,000 National Minimum Wage ranges, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, yesterday told Nigerians in Diaspora and multinational companies to take advantage of the cheap labour in the country to invest in its economy.

Aganga stated this in the keynote address he presented at the fifth National Diaspora Conference held in Abuja with the theme: Nigeria’s Transformation Agenda: “The Diaspora perspective”.

The minister, who gave the areas opened for investment in the country, told his audience: “Given our cheap labour costs and with English as our lingua franca, you have the opportunity not only to find a way of investing in these areas as individuals or groups but also to help identify major international investors in these sectors.

“Our laws and policies are investor friendly and the returns are much higher than the developed economies. We know there has been capital flight from the developed economies to the dynamic emerging markets like Brazil but now is the time to start looking at Africa”.

Nigeria is indeed a good country for investments but Nigerian government need see to the state of infrastructure, electricity and security concerns. Foreign investors know the fact that Nigeria is a good place for investment when it comes cheap labour and market prospects but without adequate availability of the three factors stated, it will be hard for them to come to Nigeria.