Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has called on international investors to look beyond the country’s security challenges and consider the broader economic opportunities available.
Gatekeepers News reports that speaking on CNN on Tuesday, Tuggar argued that Nigeria’s economic potential is often overshadowed by exaggerated reports of insecurity, which fail to reflect the full picture.
According to Tuggar, the violence in certain areas of Nigeria is largely regional, linked to instability in the Sahel, and influenced by the proliferation of arms, climate change, and other complex factors.
“It’s very important to see the conflict for what it is. It’s a regional conflict that has spilled over into Nigeria. It is not removed from the conflict in the Sahel. It’s not removed from what happened in Libya many years ago,” he said.
“It’s not removed from the proliferation of weaponry, of fighters and climate change issues and so many other complex issues.”
Tuggar explained that the Nigerian government is actively working with global partners, including the United States, to target bandits and terrorist groups in their strongholds.
He urged investors to assess Nigeria as they would any other country of its size, warning against dismissing opportunities based on isolated incidents.
He said “We’re urging potential investors to treat us the same way, to look at us the way that they look at other countries. The fact that there is an incident in a country of 923,000 square kilometres does not mean you write off the entire country.”
Highlighting reforms under President Bola AtTinubu, Tuggar cited improvements in the foreign exchange regime, tax policies, and reduced corporate income tax as measures aimed at boosting investor confidence.
He noted that Nigeria’s foreign reserves have risen to approximately $43 billion, and access to foreign exchange has become easier. On security, he said the country had made significant gains against Boko Haram through regional cooperation via the Multinational Joint Task Force, although the force was weakened following Niger Republic’s withdrawal after last year’s military coup.
Tuggar warned that ongoing negative portrayals of Nigeria’s security situation could actually worsen conditions by giving extremist groups attention.
He said, “So let us look at Nigeria holistically. Let us not continue to dwell on some of these isolated incidents and define the entire country by it.”
