What are we talking about?

If there is any investor out there thinking why they should be investing

in Nigeria? Then here are some indicators which can help them with

their decision making.

Developing countries like Brazil, India and South Africa have proven to

be great locations to invest in the last 2 decades. Perhaps it is time

investors explore more of such economies and one of them certainly is

Nigeria.

Abundant Natural Resources

Some of the natural resources found in Nigeria are natural gas, petroleum,

tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc, and arable land.

Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and is ranked the 10th largest

oil producer internationally. The Oil sector contributes to 28% of the

countries GDP. With such dependency on natural resources, investors can

confidently invest in businesses like mining, oil exploration, oil refineries

etc.

Also with oil being their major contributor and demand for oil not going

down anytime in the future, one can foresee a stable economic future for

Nigeria.

Investors are usually concerned about the stability and continuity and this

type of economy is sustainable in the long run.

Robust Economy

Nigeria has been attracting maximum foreign direct investment when

compared to other countries in Africa. Recent economic figures released

show Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $510 billion.

Along with the oil sector, Nigeria is witnessing a healthy growth in

agriculture, communication and service sector. The government has

managed to create a very business friendly climate through its policy

measures.

The thrust through different policies and programmes is to push Nigeria to

a free market economy. This has resulted in a very efficient bureaucratic

system which is streamlined to eliminate any avoidable delays which can

have negative impact on the investment friendly climate.

Infrastructure

When compared to some other African countries Nigeria has relatively

advanced infrastructure facilities like power, ports and air transport. Other

areas like communication, drinking water and irrigation are also seeing a

lot of progress.

After the reforms the telecom sector is seeing an explosive growth. When it

comes to roads the country is covered by a network of federal and

secondary roads. Nigeria also has 4 international airports and 6 seaports.

With such facilities in place, if there is any country you can invest your

money on in Africa then it can only be Nigeria.

Dynamic Private Sector

Nigeria is planning to upscale its economy in the next 10 years to a middle

income economy. One of the ways identified by government to work

towards this is through public private partnerships.

One great example of how a private sector has managed to play a critical

role is the Eco Atlantic development done in the country’s commercial hub

Lagos. Here the project aims at building business and residential areas on

a land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. The Eco Atlantic project is

completely overseen by private sector. The South Energyx Nigeria, a

subsidiary of the Chagoury group is in charge of this.

Another area which is seeing a lot of private sector involvement is

electricity generation and distribution. With a promising economic future,

the private sector participation is only going to increase and this augurs

well for investors looking to invest in Nigeria.

Huge domestic market

As per the report published on Investment U, Nigeria is identified as

having a large domestic market with considerable demand for goods and

services produced domestically.

As the economy is growing, Nigeria is witnessing growth of increasingly

sophisticated middle class. Middle class is an engine of growth which will

further push the Nigerian economy. The presence of a large middle class

means for investors a huge domestic market for any business they plan to

invest in. Now with a population of 173 million Nigeria is the world’s

seventh most populous country.

Analysts see the population growth pattern as similar to that witnessed in

Asia between 1970 and 2000. One of the reasons for growth seen in Asia

was due to the increasing share of working age population.

Mara Foundation’s Ambition

We enable, inspire and empower ambitious entrepreneurs in Africa. With the support of our Mara Mentors we will:

Inspire millions of young people in Africa to become entrepreneurs.

Teach entrepreneurs new skills.

Enable entrepreneurs to turn business ideas into a reality.

Guide business owners to grow businesses and hire (more) employees.

Empower entrepreneurs by providing a platform to showcase their business and build their network.

THANK YOU

Website: mentor.mara.com

App: iTunes, Blackberry, Android, and Nokia.

Customer Support: support@mentor.mara.com

Mara Foundation is supported by a number of partners, including: