NIPC Targets Full Implementation Of Investment Masterplan, Others

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) said it would drive to its logical conclusion, the National Investment Masterplan (NIM), which aims at clear-cut actions that key into federal government’s various sectoral masterplans and policies.

The agency said in line with this policy direction, it will orchestrate and execute targeted investment drives along country-specific, investor-specific, sector-specific, industry-specific, regional-specific, and investment-type specific strategies to facilitate FDI (and LDI – Local Direct Investment) that fit into Nigeria’s development and investment needs, in an inclusive, coordinated, tangible, measurable and effective manner.

The new executive secretary, NIPC, Saratu Umar, who dropped this hint when she assumed office in Abuja, said the agency will also logically conclude the National Investment Promotion Coordination Framework, to provide a clear strategy for a seamless collaboration and coordination of the Investment eco-system, as well as usher in a robust and effective stakeholder communication and engagement.

This, she said, will result in effective partnerships between NIPC and critical stakeholders including the international community and development partners.

Umar said delivering a strong public institution with a private sector orientation that delivers effective and efficient services that exceed the expectations of all stakeholders in the investment ecosystem in Nigeria, is not only timely, but very imperative.

Citing the Global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) markets which she observed over the last decade, have increasingly become more competitive,while the investment promotion thrust of countries that are attracting the largest global market share of FDI inflows are now driven by effective, efficient, and performance-driven Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs), Umar said critical shifts in the AfCTA and ECOWAS Investment Protocols, as well as the ongoing development of the national investment promotion policy, the national trade policy and the national industrial development policy, require that “the central and strategic role of the NIPC in the coordination of all investment promotion activities in the Nigerian Economy, should be established, enshrined and repositioned as envisaged in its enabling law, without prejudice.”

According to her, a structured, systematic and expanded National Investment Promotion Strategy; deployment of a best-in-class information technology system across the agency’s functions and processes;

sound corporate governance practices; corporate accountability and institutional discipline;operational excellence and administrative effectiveness through standardised processes, policies, and systems; certification by the International Standards Organization (ISO) to attain process maturity and enhance NIPC’s service delivery, among others, would form the thrust of a new policy direction for the agency.