A new window of opportunity for aspiring investors in Nigeria will soon be flung open, courtesy of a web-based forum that highlights the nation’s potential.
Titled: “Nigeria States” (www.nigeriastates.com), the site, according to Lloyd Aneke, Barrister of the Inner Temple, England, a legal practitioner and the Head of Goldstock Chambers, contains information on the investment opportunities within every state of the federation.
Aneke believes that the information will act as a magnet to attract investors to Nigeria.
The international investment project will be officially unveiled at the Nigerian Diaspora Direct Investment Summit on June 13 in London, England.
The site was created by Goldstock Chambers, which invited the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council and the Nigerian Export Import Bank to collaborate in its launch.
The NIPC, NEPC and NEXIM are the foremost agencies for attracting, promoting and aiding investors to transact business in the country.
Aneke stated that the partnership (with the parastatals) was created to give the project the appropriate foundational backing in the country.
The website has been used over the past eight years to attract and inform investors of the investment opportunities in the country.
“The essential aim is to attract a greater inflow of foreign direct investment to our country,” he said.
According to him, the site is targeting groups such as Nigerians in the Diaspora, Nigerians at home, as well as foreign investors.
“It will have the effect through increased FDI in aiding our new Nigeria reach the millennium development goals and Vision 20:20/20, thereby reducing poverty,” he said.
Aneke listed the areas identified by investors for investment within the states to include: agriculture, infrastructure, health, real estate, solid minerals and tourism.
He stressed that such method of showcasing a country’s profile vis-à-vis business has been adopted in recent years by a host of different countries, adding: “This can be seen every week in the Economist magazine.”
“The information on the international web site took our chambers several years to complete and we act as legal consultants and advisers to the investors. We are able to actively link investors to the areas of investment within states. We are also able to seek investors in particular fields on behalf of states,” he declared.
The legal practitioner disclosed that Nigerians in the Diaspora are particularly important as a target group in that most travelled out of the country in the 1980s and 1990s.
“This group has roots in the adopted country. They are at an age where engagement is critical both for themselves and their children. We need to engage with them now to utilize maximally their knowledge of modern methods and finance. Their knowledge of Nigeria will aid in giving them a firmer hold and understanding of the Nigerian society,” he added.
He continued: “It is clear that the current crisis and insecurity in the country has different sources, different heads and a host of different solutions are required. However, if investors, if investment, if education, if employment is increased in any region, it decreases violence. That is a clear statement of fact.
“We as lawyers and consultants aid the investors and companies to commence trade in Nigeria. We help the investor to procure approvals, set up meetings with the relevant federal and state officials and attend meetings with the investor. We also attend international road shows with the investment project.
“The investment project has introduced investors who have commenced business in a variety of areas in Nigeria including security, agriculture, hotel construction, financial provision, health and education.
“We source industry areas for investors to attend the country to invest including sugar production, security, property and infrastructure, tourism, hotel construction and security. We also aid in the provision of development finance. The investment web site is used to procure investors to the states. The transformation of the country can not only be performed by the Federal Government alone.
“President JF Kennedy in 1961 said: ‘Do not think of what your country can do for you, think of what you can do for your country’.”
Aneke stated that the current global economic crisis offers Nigeria the opportunity to showcase its investment opportunity to the world, pointing out that it will have the effect of offering Nigerians in the Diaspora a clear alternative location for relocation.
He said: “In the current world financial and economic crisis, the need for this website is even more palpable. Nigerians in the Diaspora require information and a helping hand to return to Nigeria to invest. The current crisis in the USA and Europe will act as an impetus in this regard. Financial crisis in the developed world is always followed by increase racism, reduced intake of migrants and the accusation in the press that the immigrants in the country had taken jobs which should rightly go to indigenes. This is a time for re-appraisal. It will be taken to Nigerians in the Diaspora through the internet, local radio shows, newspapers and television channels that cater for Nigerians in the Diaspora.”
Further flaunting the benefits that states would derive from the web-based forum, Aneke said: “It will bring about increased visibility in the world. Investors will have a direct link to the appropriate state agency able to aid them in transacting business in the state. We can attract investors for states in specific areas of investment potential within the state. The state will be able to tailor its requirements on the site. The site will enable ease of comparison for the investor between all the states in the federation, thereby raising the profile and presence of each state. We will hold investment road shows in Europe and USA to attract investors to the states. We will take the investment web site to industrial events taking place in Europe and the USA to ensure that the states profile reach a broad audience.
“A recent World Bank’s Doing Business in the World report sets out the countries most favoured for business in categories such as ease of obtaining information and method by which that information can be used.
“The website performs that role, as each state’s profile contains its investment requirements and information on the agency set up by the state to guide and aid investors.
“The recent economic rating of the country, coupled with the societal changes, including the enthronement of the rule of law, will act as a catalyst throughout society. It has already had the effect of reducing the incidence of corruption, thereby enabling Nigeria to vacate the lower quarter of the most corrupt nations.
“These reforms will have the effect of re-orientating the way we as Nigerians see ourselves and in due course and as important the way we are seen in the world. In creating a new way of seeing, Nigerians will now approach returning home in a new light, “carpe diem”, we should seize the day.”
The concept was first devised in 2003 and a concept launch of the project took place in June 2005.
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