Abuja — The Federal Government's investment drive appears to be making headway as foreign Direct Investment from reputable organisations reached $8.9 billion in 2012.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, who briefed State House correspondents after yesterday's Federal Executive Council meeting, noted that government was expecting an investment profile of N8.5trillion in the next five years.

According to Aganga: "Our foreign investment drive is bringing results with foreign investment commitments hitting 8.5 trillion naira and this is going to be for the next five years.

"According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, we attracted 8.9 billion dollars worth of foreign investments last year, the largest in Africa and this also makes us one of the best investment destinations in the world. We now have an integrated trade and investment policy which was lacking for a long time," he added.

He said about N6 billion investments were attracted into the free trade zone in the last one year while the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has been able to institute a 24-hour business registration schedule to fastrack the flow of investmment and creation of jobs in the country.

In the automobile sector, the minister said "We are one among two countries that do not have a clear national automobile policy. We are working with National Automotive Council (NAC) on this. We need to boost our local content and make the industry competitive. We are in discussion with two or three auto giants who will bring massive investments into Nigeria."

He added: "Since we came on board, substandard goods have been reduced to 60 per cent from 85 per cent."