Recently, Nasarawa State got presidential recognition as the country’s number one choice for agricultural investment.
The proclamation came from no one else but the country’s number two leader, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The event was the commissioning of the multi-million naira Pandagric Novum Farms, an integrated feeds and food manufacturing company in Panda, Karu Local Government Area (LGA)
Pandagric is one of the many of such agro-allied industries to make inroads into the “Home of Solid Minerals” under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Sule.
The endorsement of Nasarawa as the most investment-friendly state in the country is significant for many reasons. Firstly, the harbinger of the message is not someone who throws around praises just to appease ego.
Osinbajo, just like his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, is a man of integrity and high standing. Secondly, Osinbajo is not just the country’s vice president, but the head of the National Economic Council (NEC), the body saddled with the mandate of advising the president on economic affairs, particularly on measures necessary for the coordination of economic planning efforts and programmes.
In fact, in the current administration, Osinbajo is key to the country’s economic transformation drive which has led to trillions of dollar-worth Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). So the vice president sees Gov Sule’s effort as a personification of the NEC’s dreams of making the country the centre of industrialisation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Gov Sule has his own dream of transforming Nasarawa into a key investor’s hub, which the vice president described as “visionary”. And he pursues this dream with the tenacity which surprised the leader of the country’s economic team.
Like economic analysts have variously opined, Gov Sule came into leadership prepared. With an economic template which has become a reference document to others, he hit the ground running, and armed with his public sector experience as one of the brains behind the success of the country’s leading business conglomerates, the Dangote Group, Gov Sule has opened Nasarawa to the world and stamped his imprint as one of the country’s successful state chief executives in just few years in office.
The ongoing transformation which stands the state out as a leading economy derives it’s foundation from the Nasarawa Economic Development Strategy (NEDS) document which encapsulates enduring systems and business models that will tackle the root causes of poverty in the state which was launched at the onset of Gov Sule’s administration in 2019.
The NEDS policy document, which defines the governor’s development blueprint, led to the establishment of the Nasarawa Investment Development Agency (NASIDA).
Gov Sule sought 15 thorough-bred global economic players and conscripted them into a think tank called the Nasarawa State Economic and Investment Advisory Council (NSEIAC), and tasked them to bring to bear their wealth of experiences and ginger the implementation of NEDS as a pathway to unlocking all constraints which might have hitherto hindered the inflow of investments into Nasarawa in the past.
When he presented a copy of the NEDS document to the United Nations (NU) Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed, on the sidelines of the 74th UNGA in New York, US, in September, 2019, Gov Sule promised that Nasarawa would be one of the top three competitive states in Nigeria when he rounds up his first term by 2023. Three and half years down the line, the state is sitting strategically on top of the ladder.
NASIDA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, told journalists in Lafia in February, 2022, that over $500m worth of investments had been attracted into the state since the agency came on stream in 2019, and later noted that between February and now the state had experienced more inflows.
The completion and recent commissioning of Pandagric Novum Farms is one of such success stories.
Notable investors such as the Nigeria Flour Mills Plc, Dangote Group and a host of others are already operating in the state.
Nigeria Flour Mills invested about $300m to establish a sugar factory in Toto LGA, while Dangote Sugar Factory in Tunga, Awe LGA, is one of the largest in the country.
The Kano-based Azman Rice Mills and Farms Limited has also moved into the state and is working on 20,400 hectare in Toto LGA in a move that has activated all-round season rice farming, while opening a window of opportunities for local farmers in the state, among other benefits.
Analysts say the “mad rush” to Nasarawa is because of the favourable investment climate put in place by Gov Sule through rural and urban infrastructure which makes all parts of the state accessible by a good road network.
They also contended that unlike some other northern states, where rising insecurity has frustrated efforts at drawing investors in, Sule had moved against criminal elements, forcing them to retreat elsewhere, thereby giving investors leeway to operate.
Gov Sule has also ensured that he upholds his own end of any deal put forward by investing companies by removing all encumbrances that may stall their operations.
“Many notable investors feel comfortable working in this state. It is clear that your commitment to this project is fundamental not just for completing it, but for what we are hearing today about the great potential for other investment opportunities,” the vice president told Gov Sule during the Pandagric Novum event.
It’s the kind of testimony that draws the governor to the hearts of those at the centre. And they have been putting his experiences to productive use by asking him to represent them at every opportunity in investment events abroad and within the country.
The recent was the one organised by Chatham House, London, in collaboration with the Centre for Universal Health’s Public Health Africa Policy Forum, where he gave a talk on access to medicare by the vulnerable and indigent.
In the federal government’s investment drive, Gov Sule has become the beautiful bride and worthy representative to the world. And within the next few years, the state and country will feel more impact of this transformation ambassador in all nooks and crannies.
– Mustapha wrote in from Lafia, Nasarawa State
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