The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has advised 47 newly appointed career Ambassadors to explore possibilities of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Nigeria in general and the FCT.
The minister gave the advice today, Thursday, when the Ambassadors paid him a working visit at in his office in Abuja.
The Minister emphasized that with Foreign Direct Investment, the economic challenge the nation is facing today would become a reduced to a minimum level as the nation’s dependence on imported goods and services would drastically reduced.
Muhammad Bello said that there are a lot of investment opportunities in Nigeria and FCT which could be marketed by the new Ambassadors to their host countries.
According to him, the FCTA would leverage on their expertise to sell Abuja to the world even as he drew attention to opportunities for light industries in the capital city Territory.
He said that the Idu Industrial Layout has been provided with adequate infrastructure for such purpose, adding that his government has provided an enabling environment for would-be genuine investors.
The minister reminded the Ambassadors that Abuja is the only city that is a creation of law in Nigeria, the home to all Nigerians including the new Ambassadors, and the window through which the world sees the country.
Muhammad Bello assured them that his Administration would continue to guard the Abuja Master Plan and that all the diplomatic plots meant for embassies and High Commissions in the city would be protected.
The Minister prayed that the new Ambassadors would make the nation proud, saying: “you know all the challenges of the Federal Capital Territory because all of you live here and therefore you can best market the city by bringing Foreign Direct Investment to tackle all those challenges.”
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye who led the group, said that the visit is part of the induction programme organized for the new Ambassadors to acquaint and remind them of the government policies in terms of protocol and its priority in terms of domestic agenda.
These, he said, are built into the change, good governance, economic, security and anti-corruption stands of the Muhammadu Buhari government.
“This is to help identify the foreign policy component of the government programme to enable the new Ambassadors go out there to engage and advance the domestic agenda of Nigeria.” [myad]
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