- Reveals Why Multinationals Are Leaving Nigeria
- Says Economic Stabilisation Plan Will Address Challenges Confronting Businesses
Amid the challenging economic situation in Nigeria which has seen several multinationals exit the country, The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun has disclosed that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is working on the economic and investment climate to attract more multinationals into Nigeria.
To this effect, the Minister disclosed that the Economic Stabilisation Plan which is currently before President Tinubu will address the challenges facing businesses in the country headlong.
The Matrix reports that a few days ago, sanitary and diapers manufacturing company, Kimberly-Clark, makers of Huggies brand of diapers and Kotex, a sanitary towel brand became the latest multinational to announce plans to exit the country.
Other multinationals who exited Nigeria in the last one year are US-based Procter and Gamble (P&G), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Unilever, Sanofi-Aventi Nigeria, amongst others.
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Similar reasons cited by the companies as being responsible for their exit include harsh operating climate occasioned by high energy cost and currency depreciation.
Speaking on this while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, Edun disclosed that plans are in the pipeline to address these challenges.
“One of the major drawbacks,one of the major impediments for them (exiting multinationals) was they did not have a liquid foreign exchange market.
“Now, we have a willing buyer, willing seller foreign exchange market. It is elevated, maybe not at the levels we would like it to be but it is when you get inflation down that you can stabilise the exchange rate and even get it coming down similarly with the interest rate. That fight is on. It is an improved environment for them, for big investors as a whole.”
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“Companies will always come and go, of course, our aim is to not only keep them but to have them even more coming to invest, and we are sure that with the environment that we put in place, they will come.”
He said tax reform proposals to make things easier for both local and foreign manufacturers operating in the country are in an Economic Stabilisation Package to be considered by the President.
“We are in a difficult place but the direction of travel is and it’s towards improvement. So, every single day, every single month, we are looking at an improved economic situation for Nigeria.”
The minister also gave assurance that the current administration is working to reduce the inflation rate in the country.
“What we can look forward to in the weeks and months to come is an improvement in the situation. We can expect that food prices will come down; food availability will increase.
“That is the commitment and focus of the government. Not only have we put in place a very robust and transparent system for paying people directly, we are also looking at food availability,” he stated.
