The United States, US, secretary of commerce, Penny Pritzker, has revealed that out of over 70 large American companies operating in Nigeria, a survey showed that the cumulative amount of direct investment injected into Nigeria by 11 of the companies since 2011 totaled $10.9 billion.
According to Pritzker, taxes paid to the federal government in 2014 by the 11 companies amounted to $5.1 billion while the number of Nigerians employed stood at 24,104.
The secretary of commerce stated this recently during a high level delegation of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa held in Lagos.
The delegation, which was on a fact-finding, policy-oriented visit to Nigeria to review the opportunities and challenges of investment in the country, also disclosed that the projected new direct investment by the 11 companies in the next 12 months in a perfect policy and regulatory environment will be about $3.9 billion.
During the visit Pritzker and her delegation held a roundtable and lunch with the president and chief executive officer of General Electric (GE) Nigeria, Dr Lazarus Angbazo, and members of a business association consisting of US companies operating in Nigeria’s oil and gas, power, agriculture, financial and banking services.
