Flexible Exchange Rate’ll Increase Foreign Investment – FG

The Federal Government has said that the deregulation in the petroleum sector and the flexible exchange rate will lead to an increase in Foreign Direct Investment.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo stated this while answering reporters’ questions after participating in the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Presidential Policy Dialogue in Lagos.

His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, made the transcript of the interview available to journalists on Monday.

The Vice-President, who heads the present administration’s Economic Management Team, was quoted as saying that the government was committed to long-term investments.

He said, “Let me say that first, both local and foreign investments are crucial in the turnaround that we expect.

“We expect that deregulation and the flexible exchange rate will lead to an increase in the inflow of not just Foreign Direct Investment but also portfolio investment.

“We expect that that will happen, of course, we’re not necessarily overly excited and enthusiastic about portfolio investment that we want to see. This is hot money and it will go and come.

“But we are focused on ensuring that enduring investments, in the form of FDI are coming.”

Osinbajo said the administration was also focusing on local investments such as the 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity Dangote Refinery; fertiliser plants, and the Honeywell sorghum plant, among others.

He expressed the belief that once all the local investments came on board latest by 2019, they would change the nation’s fiscal landscape positively.