The Managing Director of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Mr Uche Orji today said there is a lot of interest by foreigners to come and invest in Nigeria.

Orji cited “how powerful and how potent it is to invest in this country, in terms of return perspective”. He continued saying that it is “really incredible when you look at the demographics of the country, the potential in buying power that has increasingly grown recently”.

Orji, who has held sway for about eight months after spending the last 18 years abroad, was speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.

He said the rating of the country abroad has “increased significantly” hence the high rate of interest shown by foreign investors.

He however noted that certain factors have made investing in the country difficult. He pointed at the failure of investors to prepare fully before embarking on a project, poor institutional framework and the reliability of the rule of law among other things.

He also noted that Nigeria is just a click away in terms of institutional frame work from inviting the right investments.

Need For Sovereign Wealth Fund

Meanwhile, Orji warned that the Sovereign Wealth Fund is needed for meaningful development to take place in the country.

He said “when you look at other countries like Singapore, Abu Dhabi and China to a certain extent, you will find out there is a causal relationship between the developmet of these countries and evolution of the Sovereign Wealth Funds”.

The Sovereign Wealth Fund according to him can be seen as “a vehicle for attracting foreign investment”.

He allayed fears of mismanagement of funds in the agency saying that they (staff members) pay their salaries from the returns they make and not from a budgetary allocation.