The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment held a retreat and workshop to unveil its new strategy that supports the mobilization of direct investment at all levels to be implemented by Federal and State Governments’, and their ministries, departments, and agencies. The new Federal-State Investment Strategy (FSIPS), which has been designed and developed over the last three years, was authored by renowned global Investment strategy expert, Dr Nicky Okoye, and it forms an integral part of his work on “National Investment Strategy” which has been implemented by several African Countries and sub-national authorities. The Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment had used the last three years to subject the new Federal-State Investment Promotion Strategy to the scrutiny of stakeholders and it has received widespread acceptability. It is pertinent to note that the new Federal-State Investment Promotion Strategy was equally presented, evaluated and scrutinized by the National Council on Investment, which is Nigeria’s highest investment body, comprising of the leadership and institutional membership of all the Investment promotion ministries, departments and agencies at the Federal as well as from all the State Government in Nigeria.
In the opening remarks by Hon Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, which was delivered at the retreat by Mr. Ishaya Abednego, the Deputy Director of Investment Promotion Department in the Ministry, the Hon Minister expressed a deep commitment towards Investment Promotion in Nigeria especially for Federal departments, Federal agencies, specific industries, and for State and local communities. The Hon Minster went further to indicate that the drive by the Ministry to expand its collaboration with stakeholders for repositioning Nigeria’s direct investment landscape is yielding positive results especially as is evident by its current collaboration with the African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute, and its founder Dr Nicky Okoye its founder in authoring and developing the new Federal State Investment Promotion Strategy.
The unique import from the collaborative efforts to unveil the Federal-State Investment Promotion Strategy at the Retreat, is that the African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute has been directed to provide all Federal and State Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies with the roadmap, the strategic framework, implementation matrix and direct investment guide for effective rollout of the new strategy for the benefit of national and state based industry, small businesses and entrepreneurial development. State Investment Promotion Agencies were particularly encouraged to take advantage of the Investment Promotion Agency Support structures embedded into the new strategy.
The founder and President of the African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute, Dr Nicky Okoye, had this to say at the Federal-State Investment Promotion Strategy Retreat:
“We are excited that the Federal Government of Nigeria and the National Council on Investment has adopted the Federal-State Investment Promotion Strategy as a pathway to harmonize and integrate the various Federal and State Government Investment policies, as well as provide for the first time, unique collaborative roles for accredited private sector professionals at the global and local levels. The new Federal- State Investment Promotion Strategy has particularly repositioned direct investment for the small business community at the community, state and federal levels, and it provides a unique pathway for extensive sustainable investment returns by integrating market access and consumer demand, to business opportunities, built on targeted industrial ecosystem segments. The most appealing part of the new strategy is its ability to stimulate new job creation in specific targeted industrial segments which have been recorded to experience growing global consumer demand especially as it relates to a post Covid-19 environment.”
After the retreat stakeholders and delegates who attended from the different States, different Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies expressed satisfaction that the sustained implementation of the new Federal -State Investment Promotion Strategy will completely redefine investment aggregation in Nigeria’s industrial landscape going forward.
About the stakeholders
The Federal-State Investment Promotion Strategy is an initiative of the Investment Promotion Department of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment developed in collaboration with State Investment Promotion Agencies, the National Council on Investment, and stakeholders in the investment promotion industry. The African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute is a body corporate registered in Nigeria with strong affiliation to the African Enterprise Institute of Washington DC USA, off which they collaboratively focus on the development of enterprises through expanding Enterprise access to investment capital, access to markets and access to strategic resources. Dr Nicky Okoye is the author of Nigeria’s newly launched Federal and State Government integrated Investment Promotion strategy, which has been designed to mobilize direct investment for strategic industries, small businesses, and strategic industrial sectors on a sustainable basis, from local and foreign direct investors. Dr Nicky Okoye is a serial entrepreneur and Co-founder of Transcorp Plc, having served as Transcorp Plc’s first Executive and its first Group Executive Director for group operations. He led Transcorp Plc’s early-stage fund-raising efforts, which successfully raised over one billion US dollars ($1,000,000,000.00) in its first twelve months of operations. Dr Nicky Okoye has also served as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (now Nigerian Exchange). Dr Okoye has advised and consulted for, in a strategic capacity, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, the Central Securities Clearing System and a host of other Corporate Institutions. As Founder and Chief Executive of ANABEL Group, Dr Nicky Okoye founded Africa’s first designed and manufactured Mobile device, the ANABEL Mobile, and he currently manages ANABEL Cares, which is the Anabel group’s global healthcare community network specializing in the training and accreditation of healthcare professionals for global assignments. Dr Okoye is a former global investment adviser and financial consultant with Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America Merrill Lynch), United States of America.