Federal Govt Targets New Strategy To Attract, Retain FDIs

The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) has announced plans to introduce a new Federal State Investment Strategy (FSIPS) in its bid to attract and retain both foreign and local investments in the country.

The move is coming at a time when Nigeria has lost its place as the first point of call for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Africa.

Speaking at the FSIPS retreat for Federal and State officials in Lagos, the head, Department of Investment Promotion, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Gertrude Orji, said, although, Nigeria is making serious efforts in attracting FDIs into the country, not much has been achieved compared to other smaller African countries on the continent.

Represented by the deputy director of investment Promotion Department in the Ministry, Mr Ishaya Abednego, she said, one of the reasons for the decline in FDIs into the country is due to the fact that investment promotion in Nigeria has been done in an uncoordinated manner, adding that, most investment profiles prepared by States government and the private sector, lack important information needed by investors to take investment decisions.

She expressed deep commitment of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment towards Investment Promotion, stressing that, the ministry has always worked with stakeholders and is seeking to expand Its stakeholder engagement by working with the African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute to build large collaborative communities for effective investment promotion across Nigeria.

She also expressed the profound pleasure of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment with the quality of the work that has been done by the Nicky Okoye Foundation, especially, in funding all the efforts for development of the FSIPS which, she said, has reached a level ready for unveiling to stakeholders

Orji equally expressed satisfaction that the current FSIPS workshop organised with the support of the African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute Lagos, with technical support from the African Enterprise Institute Washington DC.

She stated that the workshop presented a golden opportunity to advance the goals of the federal government and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment towards building a large cohesive investment collaborative community made up of foreign and local investors, business owners and operators as well as public sector officials at the State and Federal level.

The Investment Promotion head indicated that FMITI is particularly committed to the development and exposure of Nigeria’s Small businesses indicating that getting this segment of the business community increased access to investment is a top priority of the federal government.

She implored all participants to take the FSIPS workshop and retreat very seriously so that the learning and local investors, business owners and operators as well as public sector officials at the State and Federal level.

Also speaking, the president, African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute, Mr. Nick Okoye, said it is worrisome that only four States attracted FDIs in 2022.

He said the private sector is extremely important in the new strategy, saying, the first step was to get the public sector to understand the role of the private sector.

He lamented that despite having institutions saddled with the responsibility to attract investments, Nigeria has not succeeded in attracting investments.

“The investment figures are poor. We believe that what is wrong is that there is not enough involvement of the private sector. We have to get the private sector and public sector to agree,” he said.

“We are interested in entrepreneurship and enterprise development, so we are typically involved in building enterprises and if your are building investments, automatically, you are building enterprises, creating jobs. So we are interested in supporting the development of those new enterprises that are required to support this value chain,” he averred.

He recommended the need to establish investment relations office to to drive both local and foreign direct investments into the country.

He said, going forward, the institute will host quarterly investment promotion retreats and workshops for all industries of each State and each sector of Nigeria; to build the investment promotion capacity for Nigeria’s national industrial sectors, including the organised private sector, as well as Federal and State agencies.