NIPR charts way forward for sustainable FDI in to Nigeria

To help drive the Federal Government’s effort at attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in to Nigeria, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Lagos Chapter has advised Buhari government to create a deliberate communication strategy that will place Nigeria as alluring brand.

Speakers at a forum on ‘Communication, Reputation and Sustainable Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria’ organized by the NIPR in Lagos further urged the  government to deploy communication as brand building tool in the face of global competitiveness.

Nnaemeka Maduegbuna, CEO, C&F/Porter Novelli said the government needs to sell Nigeria as a brand in order to attract the sort- after FDI into Nigeria because access to capital is usually linked to reputation.

Nnaemeka maintained that investors will only come to Nigeria with their funds when the government is able to create the right atmosphere for businesses to thrive as he said “you cannot communicate if you do not earn your reputation”.

 Fassy A. Yusuf, President, F.A.O. Yusuf and VDG International Limited in his paper  said, attracting FDI has gone beyond mere organizing road shows. According to him, the government needs a planned and strategic action geared towards attracting investors into Nigeria as no investor will take his investment to a place where returns are not guaranteed.

Reputation and effective communication were identified by the discussants at the conference as key to the government’s drive to attract FDI to Nigeria with a consensus that Nigeria needs to earn its reputation through an effective communication plan backed by public relations practitioners who are professionals in studying trends and proffering solutions.

It was also agreed at the conference that a pressure group be set-up to reposition the NIPR and equally make the government realize the need to always engage PR practitioners in all its communication strategy and plan.