BARRING anychange, the FederalGovernment has set a target of N7.8 trillion (US $50 billion) worth of foreign investment to flow into the domestic economy between now and year 2020.The bulk of the country's Gross Domestic Produc (GDP) is largely expected to be shored up by the ongoing power sector reforms wherein lots of foreign investors are expected to key in, even as the reform in the sector is needed to reactivate the comatose power sector and guarantee stable supply of power to boost activities in the productive sector of the economy.Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji made this remarks during a press conference to launch the year-long commemoration of 50 years of capital market regulation in Nigeria.Nnaji, who doused fears about the possible removal of subsidy in oil, noted that government's intention to continue to provide subsidy on electricity tariff was in order to avoid shock in the system, adding that Nigeria had the greatest loss in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to power cut.At the event in which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) target to sensitise global investing community with Nigeria being an investment destination, the Minister explained that the Federal Government's economic reforms and transformation agenda had presented huge investments opportunities for the private sector in various aspects of the economy.The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh, however, expressed dismay at the low patronage by Nigerians in the capital market activity, saying, 'Only about 5 million Nigerians out of a population of 150 million people invest in the capital market'.She added that of this total, only 230,000 people representing 0.15 per cent of the total population invest in Collective Investment Schemes (CIS).According to her 'We have committed resources to enhancing and processing through fortification of our ICT platform in the areas of registration, returns rendition and analytics.'She noted that there were great opportunities for growth in the CIS for both investors and managers of such funds, saying, 'The Commission has intensified efforts to strengthen the market including examination of fund managers and trustees of such schemes and recently encouraged the establishment of an industry trade group for the fund manager.According to the Minister of Power, 'Nigeria has moved from 2,500 mega watts to 4,000 megawatts but lamented that while China, Brazil and America celebrate 600, 000, 120,000 and 1 million mega watts respectively, Nigeria is only hoping to achieve 20, 000 to 40, 000 mega watts.He explained that for Nigeria to actualise its dream of being among the major economies, it had to match energy generation to growth in gross domestic product, an energy plan which he said helped to take China and Brazil to their current economic achievement.He further explained that the Federal Government would reduce its investment in the power sector, especially in power generation but increase in transmission in the interim. We will encourage the state government and private sector to participate in the power sector.
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