Investing in critical sectors key to economic growth – NESG

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has said that identifying and investing in critical sectors of the economy is the only guarantee to grow Nigeria’s economy sustainably.

This was the submission of stakeholders yesterday at the NESG and the Nigerian National Advisory Board for Impact Investing (NABII) workshop tagged: “Investing for Impact in Nigeria: A Deep Dive into Agriculture, Education and Health Sectors”.

In his opening remarks, Mr Oladele Afolabi, Chairman of Impact Investor’s Foundation, said NABII identified agriculture, education and health as priority sectors as outlined in Nigeria’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2021–2025.

He said there was the need for more private local investments that could come to fruition through the support of policymakers to create enabling policies that would attract impact investment capital from potential investors.

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Furthermore, Mr Afolabi noted that, “There is a need to identify beneficial instruments for sectors like agriculture, health and other sectors, as well as identify restrictive policies and suggest incentives to increase impact investment.”

The Chief Economist and Director of Research and Development of NESG, Dr Olusegun Omisakin, in his presentation, said that there was a significant emphasis on agriculture, health, education and that the report by NABII not only provided information on the challenges associated with the impact investing but also helped strengthen conversations along the national development goals.

He reiterated that the report presented at the workshop looked critically at agenda perspectives, identified regulations and policies that affected impact investment and examined ways to strengthen underserved areas, including MSMEs, while recommending capacity building and improved policy regulations to increase impact investments in the sector.