Nasarawa: Creating New Investment Frontier

Economy

Over $500 million investments, both domestic and foreign, have so far been attracted into key sectors of Nasarawa State since the coming of Governor Abdullahi Sule into office, writes Igbawase Ukumba

There is no doubt that within the past three years, a lot has happened in Nasarawa State, especially in the area of investment promotion. Most of the achievements so far have been traced to the take-off of the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), which operated as a ‘One Stop Shop’. It was a special purpose vehicle used by Governor Abdullahi Sule to improve the state economy through increased private sector participation.

Coming with the mindset of revitalising the state’s economy, the governor decided to set up a framework upon which the desired sustainable development was to be built. He also created an enabling environment and invited the private sector operators, who are the better managers of risk, capital and businesses, to come into the state and do business.

Speaking at a press conference in Lafia to mark the first anniversary of the NASIDA, the Managing Director of the agency, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, said setting up a framework upon which any sustainable development must be built by Governor Sule was not just a Nasarawa model, but it was the most sustainable way of developing economies all over the world.

The NASIDA MD said: “The creation of NASIDA is a deliberate effort by Governor Sule to create an enabling climate for businesses to operate in Nasarawa State and encourage more investments; both domestic and foreign investments into the state. It is also a critical step towards ensuring that a sustainable institution is created for the state now and in the future.

“NASIDA has the mandate to initiate, promote, facilitate and coordinate investment in the state through greenfield, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), privatisation, concession, commercialisation of the state-owned assets and other related matters. The agency oversees the management of the state’s infrastructure fund as well as thematic holding companies for participating in the private sector-led investment.”

He explained further that the structure gave NASIDA a leading role in the rapid transformation of the state’s economic outlook. This, according to him is achieved through investment promotion and facilitation as well as through promotion in the business environment to stimulate growth and sustainability of small businesses in the state.

“The agency also warehouses the Governor’s Delivery Unit (GDU) leading a host of sectors’ specific programmes targeted at improving the efficiency of government activities in the state. It is a hybrid agency which has expanded mandate that cut across investment promotion facilitations, Public-Private Partnerships and the delivery of the Nasarawa Economic Development Strategy; also known as the Abdullahi Sule Plan,” Abdullahi maintained.

There is no doubt that for Nasarawa State to have achieved that peak of investment attraction, it must have experienced a great deal of private sector participation. Therefore, private investment is extremely important and represented a key component of the state’s development aspirations.

It is very important to note that over the past three years of the tenure of Governor Abdullahi Sule, his administration has closed significantly 13 Public-Private Partnerships projects. This was even as the administration also implemented over eight significant business environment initiatives, the NASIDA Chief Executive Officer disclosed.

He added that Nasarawa State was ranked among Nigeria’s top three investment destinations by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) in the first and second quarter of 2021; thus attracting investments of an estimated $500 million within the last two years from Azman, Olam and Dangote companies.

According to him, ongoing joint venture development projects include Karu Retail and Recreational Mall with Shoprite as the Anchor Tenant in the Muhammadu Buhari International Market; Cassava Processing Park set-up including a cassava processing plant, to deliver multiple cassava derivatives and a Meter Manufacturing Plant in Lafia.

“Others are Nasarawa Agricultural Commodity Company for an agriculture value chain development for rice, sesame, soya, and ginger; Nasarawa Technology Village development which takes the shape of a live, work, play innovative housing and ICT Hub and Nasarawa Transport Company project involving a Nasarawa Transport Company, to ease transportation in the state,” the NASIDA CEO concluded.

According to plans, Diamond Stripes, a major player in the transport industry will take control and manage the N1.9billion Karu Mega Bus Terminal, as well as the N1.2billion Lafia Mega Bus Terminal. The company was expected to run the two facilities in collaboration with key stakeholders in the transport business, such as the National Union of Road Transport Owners and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, among others.

Speaking shortly after the signing of the agreements, Governor Sule said the agreements were in fulfilment of the desire of his administration to introduce innovations in the business of governance.

“We came with a dream to do things differently and I think this is one of those things. We have now completed the terminus. An excited Governor Sule explained that it has become necessary to concession the terminus to a private company because it has been proven severally that government is not a good manager of business enterprises.

“It is only through such arrangement that government can be able to get returns on its investment and to be able to channel the proceeds towards other development initiatives,” Sule said.

Similarly, the governor had inaugurated the construction of the N30 billion Nasarawa Technology Village in Aso Pada, Karu Local Government Area of the state. The Technology Village project which is comprised of 1,962 housing units estate, technology hub and other facilities is being executed in collaboration with an indigenous firm, ABS Blueprint Consortium, under a PPP arrangement.

When performing the groundbreaking for the project, Sule said it was in line with his administration’s development roadmap in the area of housing, technology, employment and industrialisation. He, therefore, expressed delight with the project being executed by an indigenous consortium, saying it was in line with his administration’s vision of the development of the people and the state. The governor, however, explained that the project was fully funded by the private partners in the consortium.

The 1,962 units Technology Village would comprise 668 units of three-bedroom flats, 558 units of two-bedroom flats, 376 units of two-bedroom bungalows, and 360 units of three-bedroom bungalows. The village would also have a technology hub with offices for local and international IT companies for training of more than 2,000 students annually as software engineers, who would be helped to outsource jobs globally that could earn them as high as $3,000 monthly.

Other features of the technology hub include an ICT campus with shared virtual workspaces and an estate-wide broadband coverage through fibre optic cabling. The village would as well have a 5MW independent gas power plant, primary and secondary school, health clinic, fire station, police post, shopping centre among others.

Given the cost of the project, the Managing Director of ABS Blueprint Consortium handling construction of the edifice, Mr Mohammed Yamusa, disclosed that the cost of the housing component of the project alone was N22 billion, while the other features, including the independent power plant, would gulp about N8 billion.

In a nutshell, the development of the Nasarawa Technology Village was in furtherance of Sule’s economic development strategy for the state as stated by the CEO of NASIDA.

“The goal is to leverage the proximity of the state to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to create different technology clusters and to develop a technology-driven economy. This a deliberate effort to make Nasarawa State a top investment destination not only in the country but in Africa,” the NASIDA CEO maintained.