 It's time for our first hot topic on the breakfast and Frank Eliana is our guest is a technology and media news editor at Business they but before you get to see Frank What are we talking about President Bola to new boohoo is our chief marketer and his team have been weaned foreign investors to seize The opportunities in the country to come to Nigeria and invest they've also They've also called Nigerians living in the diaspora to come home and invest in the country Well, the push of this administration to attract foreign direct investment into the country allowed, but many are saying that the factors fiscal week fiscal and monetary Firm work as carrying the foreigners from coming to Nigeria just four days ago the US wanted citizens to Reconsider traveling to Nigeria due to increased risk of crime terrorism civil unrest kidnapped being and armed gangs in the country Frank It's time to unveil you. You're welcome to the program Thank you so much. Oh, it's a pleasure to be on the show Yes Okay, so yeah We've we've been on this case for a very long time and Every time You elect a Nigerian president. They are first part of call is outside To go through the woo investors to come into the country and maybe go to Niger and diaspora to say Hey, yeah, there's an environment for you to come and invest, you know They forget that these guys actually have eyes. They've got a years they even have siblings here in Nigeria who tell them what is happening and In the past election, I think it was it was a Some large number of diaspora Nigerians, you know, trying to participate in the election They saw it happened. This is how the election went. They saw the shenanigans that I make food and They know the type of government that we eventually inherited. So at the end of the day That same government comes to them and say hey look you guys need to come back and come and invest in your country The question is in which country I mean Go talk about patriotism and all of that, you know, people want just just want the right things to be done and Those things were not done the right things were not done Then you you turn around to come and convince them that this time around it is going to become done You know, it doesn't add up nothing adds up So first of all from that point of view, these guys are like no We don't trust you. We've never trusted any of you before and you put us right the last time that we even tried to be involved What has changed? Nothing I just come back from South Africa yesterday and from the airport Climbing to the top Milan bridge the deep Milan beach is is I think it should have a rank as maybe one of the worst bridge Paired by a mega city in any country I did trap when it's raining How should I an investor want to come into a country where the infrastructure is? That's it is dead. They're not arrival Take my good from one part of that country to another That is what we're talking about So before you go, it's gonna be telling people come to our country. We have space for you We have opportunities that's a lot of potential potential potential. Have you done the basic things clear your roots Create the avenues for good and transfer as a piece to pass What are the logistics put to next that you have addressed? What if you fix in terms of an air in terms of electricity? If you go to pitch if I start off for instance of your a small business, you're going to be to investor It's something now that you're going to them to say look, this is what we have done We have those are so traction. We have to sound so customer We have maybe expanded our services to get that and that and that the question is what exactly selling driving right now and left Add that Holding up for like three hours. So exactly. How do you want to convince investors to come into a country like that? It doesn't add up the country I'm sorry. I'm not living in this country. Yeah, right here That's what I said about this country. Okay, you have to Yeah, let me quote the president When he you know was at the NASDAQ on Wednesday Part of what he said to the foreign audience there is I quote It's a great honor for me to be here I am happy to bring Nigeria to your doorsteps and I'm honored that we are here today with the bubbling Nigerian stock Market that will evolve in the West African sub-region the greatest economy in Africa is Nigeria There is an immense opportunity in Nigeria where you can invest your money without fear Do you not think that the president is making sense here? No, he's not when you say Making investment without fear Even mean Increased There's no pressure that you can be you can go to there and not to watch over your back and not be thinking I'm I see here Have you faced security before you start saying people should not fear Secondly, he's not the one to bring Nigeria to the doorstep of foreign investors Let me tell you how it works. If you if you fix the country infrastructure The environment make things work. It is business that take you to the doorstep of a foreign investors That's even when you decide to appear in such forms and come to the U.N. call it any African investment for Europe investment for more you can invest me in investment for any form at all that involves businesses You have already projected you That things are working in your country that testimonials that show that things are working Not when you appear and there are a lot of testimonials that says that no don't go there Things are not working now. Look at the the U.S Not to go to Nigeria and you are telling them that they should not fear and come to your country to come and do what? the portal to your country alone can make the countries Can make the country go back in one month or two months That's Nigeria asking because of portals Everything is not working. So what exactly should not fear about Is it the species environment where transition is different your own local businesses that have not been addressed? So what exactly should not fear about those are the questions that these guys are asking Again, you have to realize the fact that these guys are highly intelligent They've got a lot of money and they didn't just make those monies by just sitting down and doing nothing They made those monies by smart investment. They are looking for places that are viable for them to put their money It's not looking for potentially loan It is potential Miss with miss with the right environment So we go with potential when we leave the right environment behind so first of all the president have to think about Providing the right environment in maybe an environment business to try if they are not thriving Foreigners would not want to come in a place to where your own businesses are not are dying Frank is not happening Yes, there is a new acting CBN governor and his team that have been put in place by this administration Let's look at the factors affecting the effectiveness of Nigeria's monetary and fiscal policies and how This new team can begin to do something differently Okay, so one of the factors affecting The economy production number one If your if your if your production is low, you cannot expect any output meaningful output that will contribute The type of revenue that you're looking for our production is very very low across every sector Okay, the oil sector The the manufacturing sector That you mentioned The production is far below what it's supposed to be the telecoms That is like the cash cow of the government right now is basically hanging by its thread Prepared by just two telecom operators that are sort of uh, I'm holding up the others are fighting for their lives Then you have the oil sector where major oil companies are beginning to rethink staying in Nigeria. They are leaving Then you have the FMCG Um Sector where many of them are closing shop where many of them are rethinking what they're producing Where many of them are reducing the the quantity of goods that they are producing you have the manufacturing sector where the output the productive The productivity has consistently falling. Um in the past Say 10 years, you know, so Across different sectors productivity is very very low Until you show up those numbers. You are not going anywhere. There's no CBN Policy that will make anything change. It is not there. It's not a curse. It is what is You have to do the heavy lifting You have to look at how do you propel your your your local companies forward You don't make promises and not fulfill it We are still waiting for the government to fulfill the promise to the manufacturing sector of the money that they that they plan to Release and when you release that money We also need to see that there is a modality that's a process that ensures that that money is easily accessible It's not the one that you release to banks or release to your cronies and they steal the money And I eventually maybe if it's 17 era They are the people that are supposed to get the money eventually gets 20 era No, you have to fix productivity production production production until you do that If we continue to consume then we'll continue to run around in cycles. That's what we are So it's not magic. It is simple economics Produce yourself where you are sports. That's what you're supposed to do. If you don't have spots, you can't earn money So going to call from investors coming to your country to go man come and do what exactly They don't have infrastructure to come and work with here In South Africa again, I have to make reference to that They started experiencing what they call load shedding load shedding for them is uh, this Normal thing that we have normalized here in Nigeria where NEPA takes your lights Or the discos take your light and it stands for like 18 hours. Nobody um Makes a force about it But in South Africa is a big force Because they they were not used to it So it's like when it's low shedding and what's low shedding for them is two hours two hours of light going up So if it four hours, maybe they have two hours of light going up They're like, ah, it is there. They don't know when it's going to happen. It's not going to happen. I know that but Is a society that is working things are happening. You go there. You think you're in europe And it's in african country. So why can't we get ours? Right And our leaders go there. They see these things. Why can't they replicate it? Just fix productivity Fixed in every environment allow businesses to do what they are supposed to do to be the business You don't need to go begging foreigners to come to your country and all that you don't Once you do the heavy lifting foreigners will come to beg you to come into your country Okay, uh fran this time around fran just just just a moment. Um Before we wrap up, I'm just wondering you just talked about allowing business to to do business And some of the things that the government has allowed to to happen Naturally, uh one the naira floating the naira to make sure market forces are the ones that determine the strength of the naira And now we're complaining that the weak Naira and the fiscal policy is influencing The amount of people that may come into the country. Another thing is oil Which is like the life wire of nigeria and the sea it has been deregulated So the market forces will determine how much it is being sold now We may have a situation where we'll buy one liter of frill for For 1000 naira just like we are finding the naira here in some places is 1100 naira In some places is 1000 naira and all that So is it really a a wise decision to let some critical things Just flow with nature flow with with the tide as it is Yeah, market forces as they are putting it or was it a very unwise decision for the government for instance to just float the naira and let oil Be the way it is So that is why you have a government in place, you know You have the government in place oftentimes to put a break into something You know if you if you allow society to just continue And everybody leave their lives the way they want it and all that the The tendency towards anarchy or chaos is what you will find Which is why you say, okay, this is government. It brings in a law It brings in a line and say this is as far as you can go, you know So it is it is absolutely not Possible for you to just leave your life the way you want to leave it is the same way businesses just can't run the way they want to live Do the way they want to run if if you allow that what you find is that you have you have a the bigger one you probably Staffling out the smaller ones, you know competition becomes Too too steep for some people and then of course at the end of the you find that you probably Have not created a kind of employment that you want to create for a lot more people that will be That will not be able to get to where those other big big businesses are All right, so which is why when government does something it needs to be deliberate it needs to think it through First of all the floating of the naira in my opinion was not thought through properly It was not thought through Yeah, some people have projected that it is the right thing to do and then of course even even the What was called the the this Thank you so much. Franco. We're having discussion with franca leana technology and media news editor at business day newspaper he joined us to take a look at Nigeria's weak fiscal monetary policy framework scaring away foreign investors from coming to Nigeria to invest That has been our first hot topic. We'll go away and come back with our second hot topic stay with us