₦airaland Forum

MOHAMMED Hayatudeen, the intelligent and well
focused founding chief executive of the defunct FSB
Bank, a few years ago made a passionate appeal to
the Nigerian political leaders which unfortunately fell
on deaf ears. Hayatudeen told the political class that
the country would leapfrog developmentally if they see
the six geopolitical zones as development centres
rather than platforms for pushing sectional and divisive
interests which at the end of the day leave the
overwhelming majority of the Nigerian people
shortchanged. Not even the media or development-
oriented organisations helped to spread the
Hayatudeen gospel.
Most of our political leaders are obsessed with power
for its own sake, or what Professor Pat Utomi of the
Lagos Business School calls power without
responsibility. This is why in spite of the fact that
citizens of northern extraction have been leading
Nigeria since the greater part of our independence
from Britain in 1960 the North lags far behind the
South in all human development indices (HDI) like
access to education, healthcare, etc
One top government official who is most likely to move
in a different direction is Malam Nasiru el Rufai,
governor of the strategic state of Kaduna who has
been the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory as
well as the director general of the Bureau of Public
Enterprises (BPE). Like thousands of other Nigerians, I
watched on Channels Television with acute interest the
two-day investment summit in Kaduna which the state
government organised from Wednesday, April 5 to
Thursday, April 6, 2016. el Rufai characteristically
spoke eloquently and with conviction, disclosing that
the state could give South Africa a good run for its
money in terms of huge gold deposits. This revelation
must have come to most Nigerians as a pleasant
surprise because the only business in the state known
to most Nigerians is textile. Interestingly, the well-
spoken governors of Bauchi and Kebbi states attended
the investment summit where the Dangote Group
announced the decision to invest $10m in tomato
business in the state and Olams of India followed two
days later with laying the foundation stone of a $150m
investment in livestock. It is good that leading
northerners took the summit seriously.

Yet, one state from which Gov. el Rufai can learn so
much is Anambra in the South East geopolitical zone.
Anambra has made tremendous success in attracting
investments in the last two years but for some reason
this fact is unknown to most Nigerians. Set up only two
years ago as a one-stop investment organisation, the
Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection
Agency (ANSIPPA) should serve as a model for not just
state governments keen on diversifying revenue
sources in an era of dwindling resources from
petroleum, but also the Federal government whose
Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) has by
all accounts underperformed since inception. Mandated
to bring two billion dollar investments by 2018,
ANSIPPA had by the first quarter of 2016 exceeded the
target by some $300m, with agriculture alone
accounting for 40% of the investments.
Some people may think that the stupendous
performance of the Anambra State investment agency
may have to do squarely with the fact that the state
has probably the highest number of millionaire
businessmen and women in the country. But this is
misleading. Why were investments not flowing into
Anambra when Peter Obi, a successful businessman,
was governor? Until now, business people from the
state were paradoxically investing everywhere except
their home state.

The first factor responsible for the ANSIPPA success is
internalising what Adam Smith famously called the
profit motive and communicating it to investors.
Businessmen and women are not driven primarily by
patriotism or altruism but by profit motive. Smith has
told us that neither the farmer who makes food
available to society nor the butcher who gives us meat
is guided by selflessness but profit. In the process of
trying to make money for themselves, they provide
critically needed products and services. If erstwhile
President Olusegun Obasanjo had borne this fact in
mind he would succeeded in attracting key
multinationals in his first term in office when he
embarked on almost non-stop foreign trips in search of
foreign investors. He was innocently telling business
executives like Sir Christopher Gent, CEO of Vodafone
of the United Kingdom, the world’s largest mobile
phone operator, “to come to Nigeria to help us”.
Sir Christopher was to state while retiring in 2003 that
if he had known that Nigeria was such a huge market
for telecoms business, Vodafone would have invested
in it, rather than allow small players like MTN of South
Africa and Econet of Zimbabwe/ South Africa to corner
the market. If humanitarian or patriotic sentiments
were the basis of serious investments, Cosmas Maduka
of Coscharis would not have invested so massively in
his home state of Anambra in the last two years. As
every business analyst in Nigeria can testify, Mr.
Maduka is a starry-eyed investor, who is not swayed by
sentiments. In other words, he is investing in Anambra
State because he has been convinced by ANSIPPA that
he would make good profits.
The second factor for the success of the Anambra
investment agency success is the quality of persons
driving ANSIPPA. Gov Willie Obianor, a former
investment banker, resolved from day one not to make
ANSIPPA a haven for political associates or
sycophants. The board is headed by Dr. Cyril Enweze,
an economist who was until recently the number two
man in the African Development Bank (ADB), having
worked at the IMF which he joined straight from
Cambridge University and later attended Columbia
University in New York. Also on the board are Ifeatu
Onejeme, a former executive director at United Bank
for Africa; Dr. Ifediora Amobi, who worked under Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala at the World Bank; Ambassador Uche
Ajulu-Okeke, Nigeria’s counsel general in South Africa;
Solo Okonkwo, a former economics professor in the UK
and now secretary to the government; and Greg Obi, an
ex chief executive of Manny Bank who is finance
commissioner. The management is headed by Joe Billy
Ekwunife, an accountant and retired top investment
banker.
The third factor for ANSIPPA’s success is security, an
issue of interest to Kaduna since the 2000 riots over
Sharia law and worsened by the Boko Haram menace
and a new spate of kidnappings. Anambra was until
recently bedeviled by armed robberies and kidnappings.
Ending this menace is a key achievement of Obiano
who recognises, like any other investment banker, that
capital is a coward, and goes to only places where it is
not likely to be threatened.
The next factor is availability of infrastructure. While
most Nigerian government officials consider the
provision of basic infrastructure an end in itself, Obiano
regards it as a means to an end, that is, it must be
linked to economic and social development, leading to
enhanced living standards of the people.

Both Obiano and el Rufai obviuosly belong to the
Hayatudeen school of thought which believes that
Nigerian political leaders should see their areas as
development centres instead of platforms for divisive
and sectional politics. The duo represent a paradigm
shift. A new generation of thought leaders is evolving
in Nigerian politics.
Mrs. Jaluchi Chikelu, a marketing executive, wrote
fromLagos.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/investment-el-rufai-and-anambra-investment-challenge/

Too long

Reading...

If there is no disruption due to civil war or coup and if Nigeria continue to exist, anambra State will most probably be among the first 5 top states in Nigeria

I feel PMBs administration has the intent and capacity to replicate these kind of ideas on a national scale

Anambra fast-becoming the "Abuja and Lagos" of the SE.. Okorocha please follow suite

Keneking:
Too long

Guy read and stop acting like a niggga!

Willie Obiano for President 2019

Liberty101:
Willie Obiano for President 2019

He has my vote any day.

Abeg abeg!!! make una no carry una matter enter anambra!!! we don't want that type of association!!! we don't just want!!! stay in your lane..