‘Insurgency takes toll on investments in S/West’

The Odu’a Investment Company Limited, jointly owned by the governments of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states, has raised an alarm over the adverse effects of insurgency in the country on investments in the zone and urged the federal and state governments to rise up stoutly to the challenges.

Rising from its 33rd annual general meeting held in Ibadan, the conglomerate lamented that the increased number of both internally displaced persons and refugees in the country “had created a grave humanitarian situation.”

Odu’a Investment, excluding its associated companies, had recorded a profit before tax of N759 million, which is a 53 per cent increase over N495m recorded in 2013, while it also declared a dividend of N150m for the 2014 fiscal year.

Addressing the AGM attended by the Secretary to each of the State Governments (SSGs) and representatives of each of the states on the board, the chairman of the conglomerate, Chief Isaac Akintade remarked that “addressing security issues remains a key challenge.”

He declared: “Insurgency in the Northeast and other parts of the country has negative implications for investment; it also has hampered the fight against poverty as well as increased crime rate.”

Speaking further, Chief Akintade said: “Security challenges would not allow investors to come and invest in Nigeria. We need foreign partners to support us but whenever they hear bad reports about Nigeria, they will not come. And it is difficult for us to do it alone. Security challenges are affecting us seriously. The security challenges like Boko Haram, kidnapping, armed robbery everywhere threaten investments. These are the challenges we have.”

He listed other challenges hindering investments in the country as including infrastructural deficiency, significant fall in oil revenue, volatile foreign exchange market, unstable power supply, high operating risks and cost and the