By Naomi Uzor

Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce, NBCC, has urged the incoming government to improve the business environment in Nigeria in order to attract more foreign direct investments into the country and ensure economic and sustainable development.

The President of NBCC, Prince Adeyemi Adefulu, made this call in a congratulatory letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, as the grand patron of NBCC, saying that, the Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) outlines ten policy areas which affect the business climate, including: tax, corporate governance, anti-corruption, infrastructure, competition and investment.

“To develop a sound business environment, there is a need for formalised process to evaluate these business conditions. Such evaluations require input from bilateral member organisations such as the NBCC to provide industry and investor feedback to allow the continuous adaptation to changing economic conditions” he said.

Adefulu noted that expectation in the country is high and active management of this wave of optimism together with the strategic and systematic planning of long, medium and short-term sustainable solutions to kick start the economy alongside an effective implementation and delivery model will be paramount.

“The important role that industry and private sector stakeholders will play in this development is one I am sure is high on your agenda” he stated He said rebuilding Nigeria’s deteriorating infrastructure such as Power, Roads, Water and ICT must be a critical pre-occupation of this government, as this has been discussed severally.

“Without the necessary infrastructure to propel Nigeria into a medium-income economy, its ability to compete on the global front and create jobs is compromised. We note with dismay that successive governments over the years have spent enormous amounts of money trying to fix power and roads in Nigeria, with relatively insignificant impact.

“ As the revolution in the Nigerian telecommunication industry has shown, Nigeria cannot provide all infrastructure but must encourage private sector investment by appropriate policies. We must muster the same political will in critical areas to which the private sector will respond enthusiastically. “The NBCC would gladly work with government in whatever capacity and encourage foreign investment in the country in the development of much needed infrastructure” he stated.