Insecurity hurting flow of investment from Mexico –Envoy

Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico, Adejare Bello, has disclosed that rising insecurity in Nigeria is deterring Mexican investors from investing in the nation’s economy.

Ambassador Bello stated that despite the current situation, the embassy receives regular enquiries from investors on possible areas of collaborations between both countries , even as all such efforts to attract foreign investments are being thwarted by news of insecurity.

Specifically, he said some of the areas the foreign investors have been looking to invest include oil and gas, gold mining, agriculture as well as establishing partnership with Dangote in the area of fertiliser procurement. Bello noted that  although the Federal Government has been proactive in dealing with the security challenges in the country, current onslaught against criminals should be sustained, stressing this will go  a long way to enhancing the inflow of foreign direct investment into the country.

Bello said the situation was not peculiar to Mexico alone but that most envoys would have contributed more effectively towards President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s zeal to deliver more dividends of democracy but for the security challenges facing the country.

In the last decade, one of the critical challenges facing Nigerian economy is the lack of adequate security of lives and properties, which has made it lose so much in terms of foreign direct investment. He advised policy makers in Nigeria to pay attention to the issue of external aggression by mobilising adequate resources towards the sector.