Ten States Have No Functional Investment Promotion Agency – NIPC

Ten out of the 36 States in Nigeria currently have no functional Investment Promotion Agency, a survey conducted by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission has revealed.

The Executive Secretary of NIPC Ms Yewande Sadiku, revealed the outcome of the survey during a parley with journalists in Abuja.

The survey stated that 26 States representing 72 per cent have a functional IPA with a mandate to promote investments, six states representing 17 per cent have the function situated within a Ministry, and four states representing 11 per cent  have it in government parastatals.

She called on state governments to  set up functional investment promotion agencies to attract both local and Foreign Direct Investments.

Yewande said the move was to afford NIPC a scientific basis that can be used to enhance  working relationships with states and provide the necessary support to sub national investment promotion mechanisms.

She said, “In reality, according to our records, existing structured SIPAs are not up to 26 but we continue to encourage the state governments to set up these agencies backed by legal instruments.”

Based on the survey, the highest  investment attraction in states include agriculture, manufacturing, education, solid minerals development and construction or real estates.

The  Commission advised States Investment Promotion Agencies  to leverage on its database and its several reform programmes  to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in investment promotion drive.

Also speaking at the event, NIPC’s Director, Investment Promotion, Mr Adeshina Emmanuel, said the Commission had put in place an investor tracking mechanism to follow up with investment announcements with a view to translating them into actual investments.

He said the Department, working with Stratcom, is developing an investor tracking sheet which it intends to use for the  purpose of follow up to know how the Commission may help in actualizing investment plans.

Speaking further, Adeshina said NIPC had also designed a standard web-based template for profiling investment opportunities  and manages the collected information with an intelligent, modern database.

The template, he noted, would allow the collection of information on the key features of any investment prospect, and the economic impact of the actualisation of the prospect.