Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has countered the claim by WTO DG, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that the Nigeria’s economy has stabilized under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Business TodayNG recalled that Okonjo-Iweala had on Thursday, 14 August, 2025 said that the Nigeria’s economy has stabilized moving in the right direction under Tinubu government
Okonjo-Iweala spoke to State House correspondents after a courtesy visit to the President.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State cited fresh economic data to criticise the President Bola Tinubu’s government’s handling of the economy.
According to him poor leadership and weak governance are driving away sustainable foreign investment.
Obi, however, Obi in a post on X on Friday, 15 August, 2025 , said: “FDI to Nigeria Declines Amidst Unending Global Galivanting and Uncoordinated Reforms. While the President, Ministers, and other government officials continue their global galivanting in search of FDI, our poor performance in key governance indicators, such as rule of law, regulatory quality, government effectiveness, and voice and accountability, continues to prove that you cannot attract sustainable foreign investment with poor leadership and governance.”
Citing a recent National Bureau of Statistics report, he noted that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Nigeria fell by about 70% in the first quarter of 2025, dropping to $126.29 million from $421.8 million in the last quarter of 2024.
According to him, of the $5.64 billion total capital importation in Q1 2025, FDI accounted for only 2.24%, compared to 8.2% in Q4 2024.
“Disturbingly, about 90% of the imported capital went into speculative money market instruments,” Obi said. “With such a high proportion of capital importation flowing into speculative investments, the impact on industrial growth or job creation is highly insignificant and elusive, given the ease with which such ‘hot money’ can exit the economy.”
He added that capital flows to the manufacturing sector declined by 32.1%, falling to $129.92 million in Q1 2025 from $191.92 million in the same quarter of 2023.
“In 2024, while global FDI flows declined, FDI to Africa significantly increased to $97 billion—a rise of about 75% compared to 2023,” Obi stated. “Egypt attracted the highest share in Africa, with $46.58 billion. Other top recipients included Ethiopia ($3.98 billion), Côte d’Ivoire ($3.80 billion), Mozambique ($3.55 billion), Uganda ($3.30 billion), Democratic Republic of Congo ($3.11 billion), South Africa ($2.47 billion), Namibia ($2.06 billion), Senegal ($2.02 billion), Guinea ($1.83 billion), and Morocco ($1.64 billion).”
He lamented that Nigeria received only $1.08 billion in 2024, about 1% of Africa’s total, representing a 42% drop from 2023. “Worse still, after this 42% drop between 2023 and 2024, FDI to Nigeria has further declined by 75% between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025,” he said.
“We cannot achieve sustainable growth and development with ineffective leadership and a weak government,” Obi added.
