Heads of state Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in Nigeria recently attended a webinar with Yewande Sadiku, executive secretary/CEO, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), to share insights garnered from the recently released half-year report on investment announcements and NIPC’s work to deepen state-level investment support in-line with its sub-national objectives and strategies.
The closed session was attended by IPA heads from 30 states, including heads of NIPC five zonal offices. In her opening remarks, Sadiku extols the efforts state IPAs are making in attracting investments to their respective states and advocated for healthy competition among states, saying, “In reality, the battle for capital is fierce; the biggest attractors of capital globally are countries that already seem like they have a lot of capital inflow.
“Africa only represents 3% of capital flows across the world, albeit the continent accounts for 17% of the world’s population. I would like a future where competition for capital is between states in Nigeria, rather than Nigeria and other countries.”
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Patience Okala, the legal adviser and technical lead for Nigeria’s International Investment Agreement (IIA) reforms, educated participants on the work recorded at the federal level and the disproportionate gap between the quality of agreements signed and quality of the investment flows.
“We looked at the quality of investments we have in Nigeria and they did not match the multiple treaties or international agreements the country was party to. To fix this issue, we developed a new model treaty that will enable the country to achieve Responsible, Inclusive, Balanced investments and Sustainable – investments that key into the sustainable development goals,” she said.
She further explained the four-way principle christened, ‘RIBS’ model, allows Nigeria to balance investors’ rights and obligations, and was tested with the Nigeria, Morocco and Nigeria-Singapore BITs. At the session, Mrs Okala announced that NIPC is also working on reviewing its law to enable the Commission to act as an ombudsman – preventing and resolving disputes between investors, states and organisations.
Director-general of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Asishana Okauru, gave a detailed account on the role of the NGF in promoting the domestication of investment reforms and how State IPAs can leverage access to Governors through the Forum. According to him, “the Secretariat is a credible, non-partisan association that has positioned itself as a trusted adviser that when a call is placed from the Secretariat to a Governor, it is usually prioritised due to our vast relationship and direct access to Governors across the 36 states.” The NGF has an invaluable influence which can escalate pertinent reforms and seek an aligned position during the monthly Forum meeting which all Governors attend, he added.
Besides deepening relationships with State Governors, Mr Okauru similarly recommended engaging State Houses of Assembly, the National Bureau of Statistics and Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning in advancing investment promotion. Segueing into the second segment of the webinar, the preview of the Book of States, a project inspired by Sadiku’s visit to Maiduguri, Borno State in February 2017.
According to her, “Before the visit, it was difficult to articulate the competitiveness and selling points of the state, outside of what was known through the media, which was predominantly about the Boko Haram insurgency.
Sadiku further clarified that the Book of States developed in partnership with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is a state-by-state profile that enables the promotion of Nigeria not just as a country, but within the context of the richness of its diversity. In her closing remarks, the Executive Secretary/CEO reminded the Heads of State IPAs of the Commission’s unwavering support in providing technical support aimed at replicating successful reforms recorded at the federal level in their various states. She also charged all participants to mirror legislation from the national level, and continually collaborate because “we are only as strong as our weakest link”.
