The Acting Executive Secretary/CEO, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Mr Emeka Offor, assured the Ekiti State government of the Commission’s support to drive Responsible, Inclusive, Balanced and Sustainable (RIBS) investments to the state.
He stated that Nigeria and indeed sub-national governments need to be deliberate in their investment attraction and retention approach to maintain a competitive edge, noting that due to increasing global competition for capital occasioned by the devastating impact of COVID, efforts of sub-national governments are now more critical to ensuring that Nigeria remains a destination of choice for investment.
He stated this in Ado-Ekiti during the maiden edition of the Ekiti State Economic Development & Investment Summit also known as Fountain Summit 2021, with the theme, ‘Investment Attractiveness and Economic Development: Lessons for sub-nationals’, hosted by Governor Kayode Fayemi on Thursday.
Read: Meet Emeka Offor, acting CEO of NIPC
What NIPC boss is saying
Offor said, “Please permit me to assure you of NIPC’s continued collaboration with the Government of Ekiti State to drive ‘RIBS’ investments to Ekiti and indeed the rest of Nigeria.
“At NIPC, we consider the subnational governments to be incredibly crucial in economic development, hence we developed the Nigerian Investment Certification Programme for States (NICPS) to improve the capacity of States to provide effective facilitation and after-care support to investors. Their success is our success, their growth, our growth.
“Also, through collaboration with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NIPC produced the ‘Book of States,’ in an effort to drive greater attention to subnational investment opportunities in Nigeria. The ‘Book of States’ is a tool for investors’ location benchmarking in Nigeria.”
Read: Yewande Sadiku completes 5-year tenure as Executive Secretary/CEO of NIPC
What you should know
NIPC has monitored with pride the giant economic strides in Ekiti State, led by a private-sector focused government.
- Ekiti has vast arable land for agriculture and its value chains, a brewing tech start-up ecosystem, a budding healthcare industry around the huge private investment in the iconic Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) and the multi-system, teaching hospital, amongst other investment potentials and attractions.
- A good example of Ekiti’s agricultural prowess and the government’s private sector focus was the turnaround of State-Owned, Ikun Dairy Farms after 40 years of underutilisation. The State Government divested 76% of its shareholding to Promasidor, a private dairy company which resulted in a turnaround under a year. Ikun Dairy now produces over 80,000 litres of milk per month from a herd of just under 500 cows.
- There is also the recent concessioning of hospitality facilities such as the iconic Ikogosi Warm Springs, affirming the same private-focus principle of the state government.
- Other agricultural investors in the state include Premier Plantations Limited, a subsidiary of Nosak Group with a massive cassava value chain project; Dem Eli Farms owns a N5 billion snail farm at Egbeja Snail Village which is focused on export and has been described as the second-largest snail farm in the world, second to Cyprus.
- The growing tech start-up ecosystem in Ekiti has companies like Kinplus Technologies, a software and web development company building applications and enterprise promotion software, and is also focused on talent development; JM Tech Centre, a research and technology institute also recently launched in Ikun Ekiti.
- For the budding healthcare industry, Ekiti State recently signed a N300 million e-medicine deal with Helium health; and as of today, ABUAD (mentioned above) is getting international recognition for the sort of complex surgeries carried out in their facilities – a variety of cardiac surgeries, neurosurgery breakthroughs in skull-based tumours surgeries, spine surgeries, awake neurosurgery, amongst others.
- These modern businesses thriving in Ekiti State are a result of the government’s private-sector focus and the competitive advantages and investment opportunities in Ekiti.
The Summit was declared open by Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and headlined by other dignitaries including Governors Nasir El Rufai, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Godwin Obaseki of Kaduna, Lagos and Edo States, respectively, amongst other dignitaries, investors and stakeholders in the State.
The Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo delivered a goodwill message at the event.
