The federal government has granted 12,000 expatriate quota licences to foreigners seeking to work in Nigeria while treating 2,000 applications from companies.

Sola Fasure, the spokesman for interior minister Rauf Aregbesola, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

The minister stated this on the second day of the sixth edition of the Annual Kaduna Economic Investment (KADINVEST) in Kaduna.

Mr Aregbesola noted that the ministry had handled 14,690 companies and granted 126,893 quota licences to expatriates from inception to date.

“From August 2019 to date, we have registered more than 2,000 companies, while over 12,000 expatriates have been given permits to work in Nigeria,” he stated. “We now handle applications with dispatch and will encourage any firm or organisation with a genuine need for expatriates to bring their applications. We shall accord it the required courtesy.”

The minister also reiterated the fact that Nigeria was still a profitable investment destination, despite security challenges.

”In spite of the challenges we have faced, it might interest us to know that Nigeria is still an investor’s dream where there is abundant raw materials, highly skilled and affordable workforce, and the largest market for goods and services in Africa. The return on investment has always been mouth-watering,” Mr Aregbesola explained in the statement.

He commended the Kaduna government, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) for organising the summit and choosing the theme, ‘Towards a sustainable knowledge-based economy’.

Mr Aregbesola further said, “Looking at the history of economic development, we can see that there is a quantum leap in economic production at the onset of the Industrial Revolution circa 1760 in England, compared to what obtained in the feudal era.

“The introduction of machines and factory systems that enabled mass production of goods unleashed economic prosperity on the industrialised nations.”

He pointed out that the 50 years had created a yawning gap between the former colonial nations and the societies still trapped in feudal productions.

“Two and a half centuries down the line, the paradigm of production will be further altered spectacularly with advancement in knowledge altogether,” the interior minister noted. “Economic production in the immediate Industrial Revolution era had been built on the factors of nearness to raw materials and markets, among others. Therefore, the concept of comparative advantage is said to favour locales, where these factors count higher than others.”

(NAN)