by Ogunyemi Bukola

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed that Nigeria’s foreign reserve has hit about $50 billion, declaring Nigeria as Africa’s current best investment destination.

She made this revelation in Abuja yesterday while speaking to a team of visiting British investors, led by the Lord Mayor of the city of London, Mr. Roger Gifford, who are in Nigeria to explore investment opportunities in the country.

“With a foreign reserve of nearly 50 billion dollars, a stable exchange rate, strong banking sector, massive human and natural resources, Nigeria has indeed become one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world”, a statement from the ministry quoted the minister

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who assured the investors that the on-going privatisation of the power sector would soon put an end to the nation’s power problems, reminded them that Nigeria is currently the largest economy in West Africa, second largest in Africa with potential to become the largest African economy in the next five years.

She said government’s efforts have seen inflationary rate reduced to a single digit of 8.6%, domestic debt reduced to 19% and external debt to 2%, while the country is relatively

According to her, Nigeria is not relenting in tackling the challenges of unemployment, poor infrastructure, corruption, governance challenge and power through several reforms in various sectors in order to rank among the eight strongest economies in the world, in no distant time.