BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Director of Contract Compliance, ICRC, Mr Ahmed Abdulrazak stated this on Friday in Abuja, at an investment mobilisation stakeholders’ roundtable organised by the Forum of State Investment Promotion Agencies of Nigeria, FOSIPAN, in collaboration with Brave Icons Global, BIG, with the theme: “From Opportunity to Capital Outcomes: Building Nigeria’s Subnational Investment Mobilisation Structure.”
He disclosed that many state governments often undertook projects independently, encouraging them to collaborate as well as pool their finances and resources to facilitate project implementation.
In his presentation titled: “Closing the Conversion Gap: What it Takes to Move State Opportunities from Pipeline to Capital Deployment”, Abdulrazak informed that effective project preparation is crucial to attracting private capital, but often costly.
“Most times, based on our experience in ICRC, we find out that the cost of project preparation is always so high. So, over the years, we have trained a lot of Ministries, Departments and Agencies in understanding how investments work and how you can attract private capital,” he said.
He pointed out that states should assess the financial viability of projects and adopt measures to mitigate associated risks, which is the essence of partnering with the relevant government agencies.
Vice President, World Trade Centre, Lagos, Mr David Oke disclosed that collaboration among states should be properly structured and operationalised to enable them harness their comparative advantages, attract investments and promote sustainable development.
Oke enjoined sub-nationals against politicising investment promotion, calling on states to invest in local capacity, particularly among the people behind investment and economic development.
Head, Green Growth and Private Sector, British High Commission, Nigeria, Mr Paul Healey informed that although collaboration among states could be challenging, requiring agreements, trust and strong relationships, joint risk assessments and project preparation could be beneficial.
Healey stated that most institutional investors from overseas preferred to work with credible local partners, adding that such partnerships provided assurance that local investors understood the market and had a stake in the project.
He maintained that effective de-risking should encompass not only financial considerations but also the legal environment, which is a key concern for the commission’s commercial partners.
FOSIPAN Chairman, Dr Terhemen Kpenkaann noted that the essence of the roundtable was to uncover why promising opportunities across states failed to translate into financed projects, productive enterprises and measurable development outcomes, aimed at improving citizens’ livelihoods.
Kpenkaan who is also the Executive Secretary of Benue State Investment Promotion Agency, BENIPA, informed that a $1 trillion economy needed to be implemented into existence and not mere proclamation.
He said that BENIPA serves as investor-facing coordination points by guiding investors through the government.
“Capital does not move towards opportunity alone. It moves towards credible institutions, prepared transactions, manageable risks and clear pathways to decision. This is the challenge that the Subnational Investment Pipeline Nigeria, SIP-NG, programme, seeks to address,” he said.
The crux of the event was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between FOSIPAN and BIG for SIP-NG programme development, stakeholder consultation and institutional alignment.
Kpenkaan informed that the agreement neither admitted states into implementation nor approved projects or committed institutions to financing, but provided a transparent basis for refining the programme and engaging institutions essential to its development.
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