Investment experts say Rivers is best business location in Nigeria

Rivers State has been described as the best investment location in Nigeria, by air, sea, land and blue economy.

The state has also been advised to emulate states such as Kaduna State (that worked out a way to relate with Olam) and Ogun State (that has a free trade zone to boost its economy), as well as other investment destinations such as Dublin and Dubai.

These were the major fallouts at the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) held for the south-south in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, last weekend. The event was ‘Nationwide Subnational Engagement and Technical Reform Workshop 2026’ which was held at the Hotel Presidential in the Garden City.

In one of the strategic presentations, Oluwaseun Obafemi, head, high impact investment work-stream, spoke on ‘Building an Investment System That Works’.

He pointed at what Rivers State needed to do to become a true investment destination in Nigeria, saying boosting Rivers economy is the ultimate target.

He mentioned key factors such as time management, consistency of regulations, and need to identify an owner agency for every process or regulation.

He mentioned the need to treat local investors very well because they usually speak with foreign ones. He urged the state to note that where slogans and flyovers stop is where personal testimonies start.

He advised Rivers State to choose and focus one product and build a brand around it, and then use the profit to build others. He also talked about positioning as best location in Nigeria, presence, proof, personality to drive the economic messaging.

He urged Rivers and other states to define their corridor end to end, and to be specific with details of information to investors such as location, infrastructure, market availability, sea port, etc.

At the ‘Nationwide Townhall and State Engagement Tour’ focusing on Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) framework, Sumaiyyah Yusuf, South-South Team lead, said it is important to treat local investors and business owners well because they are the ones that speak well or ill about any given city or state. Governments should create a template to deal with businesses.

She said: “Try and solve the following problems: Do analysis before you introduce any new regulation, beware of increased costs to businesses and citizens because they do not like it; avoid duplicating roles; do research before you create a new regulation, and avoid creating unintended problems.”

She urged sub-national governments to consider structured framework for decision-making for efficiency.