US offers solution to Nigeria’s economic recession

The United States Consul-General in Nigeria, Mr John Bray, on Thursday said that Nigeria would be able to overcome her current economic recession by attracting more Foreign Direct Investment.

Bray gave the advice in Lagos at this year’s Annual Lecture of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Alumni Association.

The theme of his keynote address was: “The Challenges and Opportunities
of Managing a Recessionary Economy: The American Experience’’.

“As the most populous country on the continent and as the largest
economy in Africa, Nigeria clearly stands to gain from increasing its
attractiveness to foreign investors.

“As in the case for the U.S. economy, FDI offers much to contribute
to Nigeria’s ability to grow its economy and increase its global
competitiveness.

“I hope that Nigeria will use the current recession as an
opportunity to adopt and implement economic reforms to address
challenges that existed before the current recession,’’ he said.

Bray said that the U.S. would continue to be the number one
destination for foreign direct investment because of foreign
investors’ confidence of fair treatment, profit repatriation and rule of law.

According to him, the United States remains committed to helping
Nigeria realise her economic potential.

Chief Olabintan Famutimi, Patron of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship
Alumni Association, who noted that recession was a universal
phenomenon, said that Nigeria’s current economic recession was
self-inflicted.

Famutimi said that Nigeria had over these years depended solely on
revenue from crude oil, whose price was being determined by fluctuating
international market forces.

The Association’s Patron also noted that when crude oil was booming,
Nigerian governments paid lip-service to economic diversification, as
well as neglected other sectors of the economy.

“Recession is a universal phenomenon and almost all countries have
had times weathering the storms of it, including the countries that
are regarded as the most prosperous today.

“The United States, for instance, in her 238 years of existence have
spent cumulatively, about 87 years in recessions, cueing from about 47
recessions recorded.

“But importantly, the United States has on various occasions come
out better, stronger and more defined.

“We must also state that Nigeria is a very peculiar nation, whose
recession can be described as ‘self-inflicted’, because we walked
right into it through careless leadership,’’ he added.