Coca-Cola pledges US$1 billion investment in Nigeria, boosting investor confidence, despite skepticism from previous unfulfilled promise due to excise taxes and challenging business conditions
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in West African giant, Nigeria is set to significantly increase as beverage multinational, Coca-Cola has promised to inject US$1 billion into the economy.
The company says this new investment pledge is expected to span five years.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the multinational beverage company, Zoran Bogdanovic, in a visit to the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu last week announced that “I am very pleased to announce that with a predictable and enabling environment in place, we plan to invest an additional $1 billion over the next five years. We believe Nigeria’s potential is tremendous..”
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However, a section of Nigerians are pessimistic about this pledge after the company failed to honour a similar promise in 2021. Since the 2021 pledge failed to materialize, there is no hope that this fresh plan will see the light of day.
However, the government in a statement has clarified its optimism in this new promise justifying the earlier failure on behalf of the company.
The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga in a statement clarified that the company failed to honour its promise in 2021 due unfavourable business environment prevailing at the time.
The company, Onanuga says was hit with massive excise taxes leading to the suspension of the promise.
“Naysayers and doubters scored the $1 billion fresh investment pledge in Nigeria made by the company’s global leadership to President Bola Tinubu today in Abuja saying the company made a similar promise in 2021,”
“Yes, the company made a similar promise three years ago. But it couldn’t fulfil it because of the challenging business environment prevailing in Nigeria then. As the company’s spokesperson said, while the company committed in 2021, it was also hit by excise taxes,” the Special Adviser clarified.
The government is optimistic that with an improved business environment, Coca-Cola will honour its promise.
It is considered that this pledge will help boost investors’ confidence in Nigeria’s economy while creating decent jobs and opportunities for the youth.
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