The failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a cabinet four months after winning a second term has stymied the country’s stock market, prompted foreign investors to trim holdings and threatened growth prospects for Africa’s largest economy, Reuters reports.
“It is massive,” said Andrew Brudenell, lead senior portfolio manager for frontier markets equities at Ashmore Group. “Even when oil prices were back up at $70 heading to $80 again, the stock market did not do anything. They just continue to trickle down as people give up on their investments.” But some investors said they had hoped that as the incumbent, he would move more quickly. Senegal’s Macky Sall and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa both appointed ministers within days of being sworn in as president this year.
Saudi Arabia is considering investing millions of dollars into revamping the state oil company’s ailing refineries – a years-long target for the petrol-importing country. It is also mulling construction of an entirely new refinery and investing in liquefied natural gas .“You want to see that: a) people are in control and b) work on behalf of all stakeholders - including foreign shareholders,” said Julian Mayo of Fiera Capital. “I don’t think really any of that applies in Nigeria at the moment.
Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, declined to comment on this but rejected suggestions that delays over cabinet appointments had adversely affected government operations. “Normal running of government is going on because the permanent secretaries are running the ministries until the ministers are appointed,” he said.