- BAT Nigeria MD says company was established in response to the federal government drive for FDIs
Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo, the Area Managing Director of British American Tobacco (BAT) Nigeria, has said that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the key to sustainable socio-economic national growth.
Speaking at the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce’s March 2012 breakfast meeting in Lagos, Spencer-Obatoyinbo in a paper titled ‘Driving National Growth through Foreign Direct Investment’ said is one of the most dynamic international resource that flows into developing countries, bringing with it benefits capable of driving sustainable growth.
The Area MD said Nigeria - given her natural resource base and large market size - qualifies to be a major recipient of FDI in Nigeria, adding that BAT was established in the country in response to FG’s drive for FDIs.
As a result, she urged everyone in the meeting to look critically at how Foreign Direct Investment could be utilised to drive this growth especially in the non-oil sectors.
“But this [economic growth] has to be achieved by ensuring that firms with global best practices, ethical standards with the common goal of achieving economic growth in different areas are established,” she said. “According to recent reports, over 80% of our population earn less than $2 a day. A growing economy like ours needs a sizable amount of inflow of external resources to bridge the saving and foreign exchange gaps and work towards a sustainable growth level in order to eliminate any form of pervasive poverty.”
