Investor Relations: Tool for economic growth, nation’s branding
The summit on ‘The new frontiers of Investor Relations – Access and Opportunities’, organised by Necci Public Relations and Training Consultants in Lagos opened with optimism as the theme was both apt and seen as necessary tool for driving companies’ growth and for building the nation’s image.
The theme was appropriately chosen because a two-way proper communication between investors and organisations needs to be enhanced and if well managed could impact positively on the companies’ growth as well as country’s image.
The relevance of the summit’s theme drew large attendance which included high profile Nigerians from both private and public sectors which included Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo who was represented by Ismail Ahmed, SSA to President on Social Investment Programme and former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke.
Other speakers at the summit included some of the best resource persons from different fields who dissected the theme from various perspectives to ensure Nigeria gets it right in investor relations and nation’s growth trajectory.
In her welcome speech, the CEO of Neccipr, Nkechi Ali-Balogun said Neccipr is at the forefront of sensitising the business environment about the new demands of investor relations at a time the Nigerian economy is gradually coming out of recession and it’s in dire need of trusted business allies. She underscores the importance of relationship saying that the state of the relationship between the public and an organisation, country or a person, at any point in time predetermines the ability of the organisation to achieve set targets.
According to her, communication is the fulcrum on which relationships are built and information is the currency for communication. ”Communication oils the value chain from production to consumption. Public Relations ensure that the desire to purchase is created in the psyche of the consumer by maintaining a right ambience within the relationship channels between the entity and its publics”
She noted that given the dwindling revenues from oil, tremendous potentials, a great population and productive young people and massive consumption market, the investment potentials of Nigeria is one of the greatest in the world. “Yet with the threats of terrorism and the stigma of corruption, the nation stands the risk of losing out on all the benefits by the global trends of cross border investments” She therefore said that investor relations becomes the only way to balance the parameters and create a line best fit to guide global investments into Nigeria.
Nkechi Ali-Balogun said investor relations has become key given the nation’s potentials yet negative narratives stare the country on the face. “Investor Relations therefore become the only way to balance the parameters and create a line best fit to guide global investment in Nigeria.
“We are poised to assist government and other stakeholders through strategic communication to mitigate bureaucracies and bottlenecks that may impede the efforts of government in providing transparency and ease in the way we do business”
In his speech, Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River State who took a critical look at the unstable growth trajectory of Nigerian economy and the need for investor relations said that the nation, first of all requires not more than 7 per cent lending interest rate to achieve steady growth.
Presently commercial banks’ lending interest rate is between 25 per cent and 35 per cent which Duke who developed Tinapa as one stop center for business in his time as governor 1999 – 2007 said it is too high for a country like Nigeria in a hurry to develop.
“It is not acceptable to allow interest rate to rise up to 25 per cent and more. Interest rate should not exceed 7 or 8 per cent if we must grow our economy”, he said.
Duke who acknowledged that Nigeria has a big market underscored the importance of local investors but regretted that high interest rate is hindering them to borrow to do business. “The foreign investors would ask questions if the local investors are not investing”, he said.
According to him, there is so much to be done by the private sector but unfortunately the practitioners cannot access credit to lift the economy.
He also told the audience who included economists, marketing professionals, government officials and students that the present 6 per cent contribution of tax to GDP is very low and said it should be around 20 per cent.
Also suggesting ways to move the economy, Duke advocated for continuity in government programmes. “Lack of continuity is the reason Nigerian economy has not moved forward. Succeeding regimes discard pathways laid out by previous regimes. We are all shift-workers and should continue from where other shift workers stopped rather than discarding what the previous shift workers had done”.
Citing the objective of Tinapa, Duke called on every state in Nigeria to plan to become economic independent within Nigeria.
Also speaking Ismail Ahmed, SSA to President on Social Investment Programme who represented the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo recognized the high interest rate which he said it’s a huge challenge but said government is trying its best through intervention programmes such as Anchore Borrowers initiative to find ways around it.
“It is true that government has no business in business but a situation where there is economic depression, then the people must be lifted and create wealth, and government has to come in”
Ahmed further said Nigeria is open for business and government is doing its best to ensure ease of doing business through the various initiatives that have been introduced.
“There are so many things government is doing but no government is good at telling its own stories . Other people have to do that and this roundtable is good avenue to sell what this administration is doing so that the message could be disseminated further”.
Other speakers on the topic including the former commissioner of Information, Rivers State, Ibim Semenitari believe that Nigeria needs to communicate its positive narratives to the outside world.
The nation cannot build image on nothing. If the people who are critical of the nation don’t buy in to the brand, there is nothing to sell, Semenitari said.
According to Semenitari who managed Rivers State image at the time of militancy and kidnapping said reputation management is everything. “Objectives must be properly communicated to targets with details that enable understanding, buy-in and engagement. Conversations must be as consistent as it should be dynamic. Open government will enable better content creation and engagement by those saddled to market the country and target prospective investors”.
Gbenga Adefaye, General Manager of Vanguard Newspapers identified leadership as trigger to nation branding and image building. Charles O’Tudor, Principal Consultant, Adstraat Consulting Management Consortium regretted the absence of brand strategy and coordinating efforts to properly re-shape Nigeria and communicate its positives. “There must be clear-cut communication and dissemination to the outside world”
In his view, Yomi Badejo, CEO of CMC Consult, a pr firm who said that Buhari government is grossly under-communicating, listed security, creating support structures for investment, capacity building, ease of capital movement, dispute resolution among others as critical enablers for FDI. “Creating enabling policy framework around this is fundamental to attracting and sustaining investment”, he said.
Jumoke Oduwole, SSA to the President agreed that Nigeria obviously has a perception problem which is basically driven by poor communication but said government is doing so much to improve business environment. She said there are initiatives to remove bottlenecks in the business facilitation across borders and freighting cargo around the country.
She encourage perception managers to partner government to reshape the country, tell the Nigerian story positively and impact on job creation and economic development.
Also looking at the topic, Femi Owoyemi listed areas of opportunities for Nigeria. For example, he said economies these days develop around their diaspora population but regretted that Nigeria has been using old dynamics to solve modern problems.
Femi who also regretted that politics in Nigeria has been the greatest contributor of slowdown said reliance on export revenue has not and will not help Nigeria build a vibrant economy.
From the knowledge-filled sessions, participants including students of Temple Secondary School, Lagos acknowledged that the Nigerian brand is not portraying much of its good narratives but were however optimistic about the future if the potentials in the country could be well harnessed and communicated to Nigerians and to outside world.
Daniel Obi