…As NIPC rakes N5.6bn in one year
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Ms Yewande Sadiku, said the country recorded about 90.90 billion dollars “investment announcements’’ in 2018.
Speaking at an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, Sadiku explained that the announcements did not necessarily translate into actual investment but served as business investment indicators into Nigeria.
She said that announcements were made for 92 projects across 24 states and the Federal Capital Territory, in mining, manufacturing, transportation, construction and other sectors, from foreign investors.
Sadiku said that the commission also generated more than N5.6 billion during the period from business registration of foreign companies.
She said that the revenue generated in 2018 had an unusual rise when compared to N4 million generated in 2013 and N29.11 million recorded in 2014.According to her, the success is due to NIPC new style of operations that have moved from being reactive to being proactive, thereby putting in place initiative and measures to enhance the investment climate in Nigeria.
“It is important that we promote investments that are all-inclusive. I think that we should promote foreign investments as well as domestic investments”, she said.
Sadiku said that government had not understood the entertainment industry and was missing in the investment opportunities in the sector, especially the revenue.
She noted that it was of paramount importance that more attention was given to the engagement of stakeholders of the entertainment industry for better understanding of the sector in order to harness the revenue in that sector.
She disclosed that the commission would have performed better than it did in the previous years but for funding constraint, which had remained a major challenge in achieving its outlined policies.
The secretary said that NIPC’s strategic plan for 2019 was to develop an e-business facilitation platform, re-launch the One-Stop Investment Centre Laboratory and undertake investment impacts assessment.
Other plans, according to her, are incentives impact assessment, developing facilitation database, target investment promotion, proactive aftercare to the top 100 companies and establishment of an investment promotion club.
