The Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, on Tuesday, disclosed that it was making plans to ensure that Nigeria becomes a constant preferred investment destination of choice.
The Executive Secretary of the NIPC, Saratu Umar, disclosed this at the stakeholder’s engagements held in Abuja.
She said the NIPC was also strategising to increase national attractiveness and branding strategies at the national and sub-national levels to deepen the investment promotion drive of Nigeria.
“Flowing from the foregoing, the investment promotion drive of the country is largely fragmented, thereby depriving us of cohesive leverage we could have achieved if we synergized our efforts and resources.”
She said the absence of a coordination and monitoring mechanism has left the investing community in a state of confusion.
She added that the coordination of investment promotion activities between the national IPA, NIPC, and sub-national IPAs for the effective implementation of investment promotion activities is largely absent.
To avoid a ‘race to the bottom’ conduct, Umar noted that the country’s effort should be created for investment promotion under the coordination of the national IPA, NIPC.
She added that Nigeria is a resource rich country with a potential that is unrivalled by any other country in the world, adding that this potential is yet to be fully harnessed.
“The level of resource mobilisation is insufficient to harness this potential for inclusive growth and national development, and this is where the role of investment promotion comes in to attract Foreign Direct Investment and mobilise Local Direct Investment.
“Global FDI market over the last decade has become very competitive and versatile where the investment promotion thrust of successful jurisdictions that are attracting the largest global market share of FDI inflows are driven by effective, efficient and performance driven IPAs.
‘With almost 180 IPAs worldwide competing to channel FDI to their different countries, a compelling imperative is established that NIPC is positioned to ensure that Nigeria gets a fair share of this global market.
“The commencement of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area makes it imperative for Nigeria to enhance its investment promotion drive and outclass other economies within the Area, in order to remain the preferred investment destination of choice because with ACFTA, an investor can establish operation in any African Country that is signatory and still access the Nigerian market,” she said.
Umar added that the central and strategic role of the NIPC in the coordination of all investment promotion should therefore be activated to ensure Nigeria’s investment promotion drive is given traction to onboard investments into the different sectors of the economy in a bid to facilitate economic growth and national development as well as job creation, import substitution, foreign exchange generation and reduction of our reliance on debt amongst others.
“Therefore, in order not to lose out of the tremendous opportunity that has now presented itself, we must collaborate under NIPC’s coordination to implement investment facilitation measures to maximise the impact of investment facilitation activities.
“Thus, under the national investment coordination framework being evolved, NIPC will provide a clear strategy for a seamless collaboration and coordination of the investment ecosystem as well as usher in a robust and effective stakeholder communication and engagement.
“This will result in effective partnership with all concrete stakeholders including sub-national investment promotion players. A national council of investment promotion will also be launched by the NIPC under its chairmanship and membership of all sub-nationals with investment promotion roles to facilitate, a peer review, seamless coordination of the activities of the national and state IPAs for holistic growth and development,” she said.
