KHALIL NUR KHALIL, the executive secretary/CEO of Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency (KADIPA), is the 29-year old appointed in October 2021, to drive the state’s ambitious project of attracting multi-billion naira investments to the State, towards its much-needed sustainable economic prosperity and development. In this interview with BASHIR IBRAHIM HASSAN, Khalil discusses how Kaduna is managing to attract investments and growing the internally generated revenue despite a myriad of challenges, notably insecurity. Excerpts:
What is the mandate of the Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency (KADIPA); what has it done, what is it doing, and what does it plan to do in the future?
The logic of establishing an Investment Promotion Agency stems from the fact that the government has constrained resources, financially, especially. We ought to have an initiative to leverage private sector capital to provide jobs. This is the logic of establishing the agency, which also drives internally generated revenues (IGR). Therefore, the administration of Governor Nasir El-Rufai created KADIPA by law number 17, on the 23rd of December 2015. We began operations in 2016.
The mandate of the agency is to initiate, promote, facilitate and originate investments into Kaduna State. We do so via greenfield projects, brownfield projects, Public Private Partnerships (PPP), and privatization. We are also tasked with showcasing and marketing Kaduna State as the premier investment destination in Africa. We are also tasked with the mandate of providing an enabling business environment in Kaduna state. We were around number one on the ease of doing business ranking report in 2018. That is as a result of the coordination done by KADIPA and across various businesses. We also provide aftercare services to investors in Kaduna state, to ensure that we retain and also expand their businesses. Also, we ensure that we provide them with the necessary incentives and facilitate the seamless process of them acquiring their permits and licenses. We also undertake policy advocacy.
What have you been able to do to achieve the vision of the organization to become a destination for investment since your assumption of duties?
From the onset, KADIPA began to advertise Kaduna state since 2016, laying out policies and plans. The administration came within the strengths of a governance agenda and a Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2016 – 2020, with a sector implementation plan on how to actualize the SDP itself. KADIPA committed to ensuring an enabling environment for investors, which entailed registering properties, and enforcing contracts through an efficient judiciary. We’re number five on starting business and that’s with regards to acquiring business permits, registration with the Ministry of Commerce and business innovation and technology. With regards to acquiring development permits, I think we are number 17. So, the cumulative score allowed us to be number one in the whole of Nigeria in the doing business report.
Having achieved that, we have been holding the Economic and Investment Summit since 2018 to showcase Kaduna state to the world. We began by ensuring that Kaduna state is open for business, we did partnership for development and we have been holding it successfully for the past six years. We are going to hold the seventh edition sometime this year. KADIPA has been able to increase the investment portfolio of the state from literally $0 to $3.1 billion so far. We have also ensured that we contribute to the IGR of the state. All the investors we bring in pay premiums, they pay fees and so on.
Kaduna state has gone from N13 billion in IGR all the way to N50.7 billion in 2020. The 2021 numbers will be announced very soon.
What are the unique investment opportunities in Kaduna state – what do you tell the world?
There are a lot of reasons why investors should invest in Kaduna state. First of all, we have an enabling environment for business that is of interest to investors. Investors are assured and guaranteed that there is political will to ensure that their projects take off in a very timely manner and with very seamless facilitation processes and procedures.
We tell them that we are number one on the ease of doing business, which is an achievement in itself. We tell them that all our agencies are automated or in the process of being automated, so they have no worries as far as transparency and getting their permits and licenses in a timely manner are concerned. We also let them know that Kaduna is the third most populous state in Nigeria. So you are talking about the third largest consumer market. This also gives you access to the entire northern market, because we’re strategically positioned, geographically speaking, and Kaduna will be an industrial hub again within the next decade, given the investment drive we are embarking on.
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We also tell them that 75% of the workforce population are below the age of 35, who are skilled and semi-skilled workers. Kaduna, being the center of learning in Nigeria, you are guaranteed that you’ll have all the necessary tertiary research institutions in a cluster within one state.
We tell them that we are an agrarian state, the number one in ginger. So investors can come and invest in that value chain and add value to the subsector. We are also the number one producer of maize and one of the major producers of tomatoes, and soya beans as well. We want to see investors coming to actually partake in PPP agreements to develop our grazing reserves, develop modern abattoirs and so on. We also want to see technology that is applied to all these manual analogue processes and procedures that drive the agricultural sector.
We also advertise our solid minerals as a very interesting sector. Our largest investment is in the solid minerals’ portfolio, through the African Natural Resources and Mines Limited, whose $650 million investment in a steel plant is the largest investment in the state. We are blessed to have lots of minerals in Kaduna state — tantalite, gold, iron ore, and so on and so forth.
We created the Kaduna Mining Development Company, and the logic of creating the company is so that investors don’t have to go through the tedious process of getting a license from the Federal level. This company has acquired more than 30 mining licenses, so all you have to do as an investor is come in, enter a JV agreement with the Kaduna Development Company, extract, develop, and export whatever material, element or metal that you’re working on. So that’s in the solid mineral sector.
In the renewable energy sector, we have a lot of projects in the special agro-processing zone along the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
Investors are welcome to provide off-grid solutions, power services, solar, etc., to all the ongoing projects happening in Kaduna state. For example, across all our primary health care establishments, across the housing sector, the economic zones, we need organizations to power the industries and even housing estates with off-grid solutions.
Then we have the IT sector. For ICT, we’re going to embark on a lot of initiatives. We’re looking at passing the start-up bill in Kaduna state. We’re looking at leveraging the Africa Development Bank’s $270 million facility for a digital and creative enterprise initiative. Kaduna state will key into that. We’re also looking at partnering with NSIA on some technology initiatives. We’re bringing all the major tech companies down to Kaduna, to show them the environment, because we feel our state is a cost-effective location for their workers or people that want to work remotely.
There’s also the kadstep singularity programme, the continuation of the Kaduna start-up entrepreneurship programme by Kaduna state government and the Kaduna Business School. This next phase of it is in line with the knowledge-based economy that we’re trying to transition the economy into. Then there is the housing sector. Investors are welcome to come in, build mass housing, low-cost housing all the way to luxury apartments if they so wish. We have the textile sector which we’re very passionate about reviving. We want to be able to do so within the special agro processing zone now and the green economic zone. We also have the education sector; we want to see more private universities springing up in Kaduna state.
How much progress have you made in all of these?
Not pretty much. This is why we want to open up the economy for private sector investors to come in and see what they can do.
We also have the health sector. We want investors to come in and establish specialist hospitals and diagnostic centers and to assist in the implementation of our primary healthcare and state healthcare development plans and so on.
We recently launched the tourism and culture sector because we feel one of the most untapped sectors in Kaduna state are the entertainment and tourism sectors. In the tourism sector, the Government is working assiduously towards solving the security problems and issues. We feel once that is taken care of, the tourism sector will thrive, enabling festivals to be held, boosting the business of tourists’ management companies.
Also, agencies like FAAN are offering cargo wings for shooting of movies, which will boost Nollywood and Kannywood operators and local content producers.
You have mentioned so many sectors where investors can come and invest. You talked about agriculture which is our next oil; so, which agricultural sub-sector is the most attractive for investment?
Ginger, maize, soybeans, tomato, and the dairy sector are the major ones that I feel have the highest potential for return on investment. If I am an investor, these are what I’ll go into, and these are what we market the most.
What is your own plan for moving this organization and Kaduna state forward in terms of investment?
I want to, first of all, commend my Governor. He wasn’t just a politician that promised youth inclusion and so on. A lot of politicians have promised to include youths only for them to get elected and then nothing happens afterwards. So, the vision of the Governor to actually include youths in the governance agenda has truly materialized as clearly evidenced by people like me being brought in.
I also commend him with regards to the State Development Plan, transitioning the state’s economy from what we have to a knowledge-based economy. This has set the tone for the future for us. So from the onset, having been appointed, we sat down and addressed two key questions: “How do we take the investment promotion drive globally?” We are living in the 21st century and cannot ignore the global economy. So the legacy that I would love to leave is to have a world class state investment promotion agency.
Investors are assured and guaranteed that there is political will to ensure that their projects take off in a very timely manner and with very seamless facilitation processes and procedures
In the tourism sector, the Government is working assiduously towards solving the security problems and issues. We feel once that is taken care of, the tourism sector will thrive
My vision is for Kaduna state to regain those glorious days – when Kaduna was in its prime as the political capital of the North; to assume the status of the number one investment destination in Africa. We’re creating the necessary hype and buzz because we are a marketing agency and, at the end of the day, we need to make the noise to market this state as the number one state in Africa. We have joined the World Association of Investment Promotion, and we’re the only sub-national agency in the body.
What about the manufacturing sector? What is happening there?
That’s the focus, the SDP is cut across three pillars; Technology sector, value added economic activities across priority sectors, and then infrastructural development. I have explained technology. This value-added economic activity is the manufacturing sector.
We have privatized all state-owned enterprises, it’s just one or two assets left. With regards to manufacturing, we are going very heavy on it. I can assure you within the next five years, Kaduna state will regain its glory as an industrial hub. This is the plan and I think we are on course. Once we’re done with the economic zones, when the green economic zone is designated as a free trade zone, and once we are done with the Africa development bank on the special agro processing along the Abuja-Kaduna highway, it will solve a lot of security issues. It will create a lot of jobs; you’ll even see more manufacturing companies coming on board.
We are in talks with the likes of NNDC to find ways to get most of their assets that are moribund up and running. But the manufacturing industry is very heavily invested especially because we want to see the textiles come back. We are very much keen on doing that
What are the basic incentives in Kaduna for attracting investors to the state?
The first things this administration did were the critical reforms. We tell investors that we don’t have multiple taxations. You don’t have various multiple agencies coming to you for taxes because everything is domiciled within the Kaduna Internal Revenue Service. We did not increase the IGR by increasing taxes, but by automating tax collection processes and procedures, and then enforcing collection. That’s how we’re able to go from N13 billion all the way to N50.7 billion.
The creation of KADGIS alone is a great achievement for the state. The Kaduna State Geographic Information Service has automated the land administration of the state. It’s only in Kaduna state that you can go on the KADGIS website, put in a land title number and you’ll see a brief information on who owns the land. Nowhere else in Nigeria would you ever see that. So investors are guaranteed that there’s automation across our MDAs, we facilitate these investments in a month or less. Getting your development permit is seamless. Based on research, we have found out the marketing is actually done within the business community by investors talking to other investors.
What structures are in place to ensure that whichever Governor comes supports you to achieve what you set to achieve?
KADIPA is not created based on executive order. It was created and established by law. You’ll have to go back to the state House of assembly, you will have to go through all the local governments to convince them and so on, to de-establish it.
What words of encouragement do you have for young people out there?
First of all, all the hopes of younger generations are on my shoulders, and I feel it, but it is not a burden that is going to tie me down per se. It is a privileged position that we need to exploit and work on and ensure that we exceed all expectations. And I hope we’re doing that, we will continue to do so.
Now, what I tell my generation is as follows: our coming into the system is inevitable because we constitute a majority of the population in the country as well as in Kaduna. We are being heard now, but what I like to always tell them is that the days of complaining and the days of talking and talking are gone; it’s just about action, and we need to optimize that at all levels. We should not wait for the government to solve our problems; we need to innovate and see how we can leverage all the opportunities available across the local and global economy.
Again, what I tell my generation who are in business or want to embark on entrepreneurship is that we need to stop looking at jobs in the old ways that we used to look at them. A lot of people have jobs in careers and fields that don’t even exist yet. So, they need to begin to see themselves as job creators. They need to look at the system and realize that they can morph it into things that don’t even exist at the moment.
We have that opportunity. We should take advantage of it and we should work hand-in-hand. There are those young people who have found themselves lucky in government and there are those who also have found themselves lucky in business. They are very young and they have billions. Once you merge economic power and political power, you can forge a new reality that never even existed. We already have the necessary resources which are our population and the youthful energy. Once we’re able to unite with a sincerity of purpose and a strong economic sense of purpose, we will become unstoppable in the world. I am hopeful this will actually materialize despite all the challenges we’re facing. It’s just a phase and we will get there.
