Enugu investment roundtable: Now, let the transactions begin

This Friday, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu state will flag off the inaugural Enugu State Investment and Economic Growth Stakeholders Roundtable where he will unveil a $2.1 billion (₦1.6 trillion) project pipeline that spans several industries such as transportation and healthcare infrastructure, energy, power, and agro industrialisation. The roundtable, themed ‘Leveraging Public Private Partnerships’, is a precursor to the launch of a maiden multi-stakeholder, fully transactional Diaspora and Investment Forum scheduled for the second quarter of 2024.

It is expected to draw participation from senior executives from the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation, the African Export-Import Bank, the United Kingdom Department for Trade and Business, and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). These in addition to the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, commercial banks, corporate pension funds, private equity funds, infrastructure funds, and other domestic financial institutions will convene in Enugu to chart a trajectory for effectively mobilising private capital for large-scale infrastructure projects, including climate resilient and sustainable infrastructure projects that can unlock the state’s and south-eastern Nigeria’s economic potential.

They will be focusing on barriers to investment and economic growth in Enugu state, improving investor confidence, understanding investor’s risk and return preferences, and identifying partnership opportunities for project preparation and co‑investments.

It has been said many times, and rightly so, that at the root of Nigeria’s economic woes is a highly dysfunctional federal structure that has progressively reduced states to indolent dependents of the central government. In his back page treatise in the March 4, 2012, edition of THISDAY newspaper, which he entitled ‘Federal Allocation and Our Future’, Simon Kolawole, a columnist, likened the story of Nigeria to that of a father who has 36 children. But instead of encouraging all his children to be creative, hard-working, and independent, this father (called Nigeria) ignores the larger picture of every child being self-sustaining and insists on redistributing his children’s wealth.

Going further, he questioned: “Why do we need to stretch our brain to dream of building our own Microsoft and Apple when we can look up to Abuja for the flow of petrodollars every month? Why should Bauchi bother to tap its tourism potential? Why should Bayelsa dream of feeding Africa with its FADAMA rice when there is a fat FAAC cheque to be collected in Abuja monthly? Why should Aba be developed into our own Taiwan or Japan? There is no such incentive. The only incentive I can see in Nigeria is federation account”.

Unfortunately, nothing has changed. Nigerian leaders still dream petrodollars, with the states ever unimaginative, lacking in creativity, and dependent on federal handouts. Today, hard times have hit the nation because not only is the oil price not what it used to be, but also because powerful cartels now steal millions of barrels of oil ‘undetected’ by those we pay to prevent such economic sabotage or at least apprehend the perpetrators.

A paradigm shift

The result is that Nigeria went into the 2023 election with the economy in a state of emergency. Thus, Governor Peter Mbah’s message of paradigm shift resonated with the people. Not only did he make the economy the crux of the matter, but he also unveiled an ambitious economic and development agenda built outside the Abuja monthly handouts. He believes that Enugu’s path to the future does not rely on the federation account but on extensive partnership with the private sector powered by creative and visionary leadership to harness the state’s natural and human resources and unlock the capital needed for growth from a meagre $4.4 billion to $30 billion. He promised to lead Enugu to become one of the top three states in Nigeria in terms of GDP as well as to a zero percent poverty rate. He promised to make Enugu the preferred destination for investment, tourism, and living.

It was pursuant to these that he equally promised to organise an investment summit in Enugu within the first 100 days in office because the promised $30 billion economy could only be possible by bringing investors to help transform the Enugu economic landscape from a public sector to a private sector-driven economy.

Abundant opportunities

The good thing is that Enugu has no reason to be poor, given the abundant resources and opportunities, which are sadly dormant and untapped. As the governor rightly explained during the 2023 Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry International Conference and Expo in Lagos on Tuesday, Enugu is a land brimming with opportunities — agriculture and agro-industry, real estate, logistics and aviation, tourism, real estate, mineral resources, and information communication technology (ICT), among others — begging to be harnessed and exploited.

In the area of agriculture and agro-industry, for instance, Enugu is positioning to take advantage of our proven strong factor productivity in the areas of some key segments of agriculture by opening up another 300,000 hectares of farmland for cultivation of focus crops and animal production. Talking about crops, Enugu, under the administration is focusing on opportunities in cassava, soybeans, palm oil palm production, cashew (whose global market size is predicted to hit $7 billion by 2025), and Nsukka pepper, which has become a veritable export commodity as well as an industrial raw material for various spice brands. Likewise, investment opportunities in poultry, piggery, and fishery are quite large, as even local needs are not met at the moment.

Enugu’s geographical position as the gateway to the north makes it attractive for agro-processing investments to process agro products from both Enugu and the north to service the southeast and south-south.

It is important to note that the southeast and south-south are the final destinations of 40% of the air cargo imported through Lagos. This makes investments in logistics and aviation quite lucrative. Thus the Mbah administration is investing extensively in our logistics and aviation to make transit through and to Enugu efficient and seamless. It is prioritising the development of a cargo terminal for the Enugu International Airport to facilitate the direct receipt of cargo in Enugu as opposed to the current practice of shipping into Lagos airport and then undertaking the arduous and expensive overland journey to the southeast by truck. The terminal, according to the governor, will equally facilitate the export of agro-produce directly from Enugu.

There are also opportunities in the light rail, which the state plans to develop in collaboration with other southeast governments. Economic growth and investment opportunities also abound in the development of modern logistics centres at key crossroads like Obollo-Afor and Ninth Mile Corner as other investment opportunities as marshalled by the government.

In the tourism industry, the state intends to develop world-class theme parks and is in the process of refurbishing and reactivating the Presidential Hotel, Enugu, and completing the long-abandoned International Conference Centre.

In the area of real estate, the state would be developing a new town, in response to the high demand for housing in the state. That alone would offer 60,000 household living spaces. In fact, real estate opportunities in Enugu are limitless.

Meanwhile, whereas Enugu is popularly known as the Coal City state, the truth is that the state is blessed with natural gas. In fact, the state has joined the ranks of oil-producing states. Furthermore, it has solid minerals such as ironstone, zinc, lead, limestone, and kaolin, among others in abundance. The administration is therefore working with the federal government to bring in investors to produce them.

The present administration prioritises youth development so they can easily fit into and also reap bountifully from the world of robotic science, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, mechatronics, e-commerce and Fintech. It wants to transform the youths from job seekers to wealth creators and employment generators. Therefore, it seeks to build a Tier-4 Hyper-scale Data centre that will not only service local needs but also offer hosting and other services to major businesses like Google and Facebook.

Making life easy for investors

The other good thing is that being a businessman himself, Peter Mbah understands the serious challenges faced by setting up and running businesses in Nigeria, and has promised to make life easy for investors.

“Enugu is now open for business. We will make life easy for you. We are markedly revisiting our ‘ease of doing business’ indicators to ensure the environment is conducive for business. For example, our new land title processes will facilitate the issuance of a certificate of occupancy in not more than three days or 72 hours.

“Processes for the procurement of building approvals will also be revisited and markedly reduced to achieve improved efficiency.

“We are automating all our major government processes to ensure transparency in all aspects of engagement with government and facilitate self-service by the public with little or no need for physical engagement with public servants.

“We are also willing to de-risk business investment in key sectors by providing access to land, providing support infrastructure, handling engagement with host communities, among others,” the governor had equally told the business community at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the 2023 International Conference and Expo.

But, perhaps, most significant is that the government made security and peace the number one on its agenda from day one. Not only has the government been able to end the illegal Monday sit-at-home, but it has also restored normalcy through the massive deployment of technology, personnel, and hardware. Only recently, the state launched the pilot phase of the Distress Response Squad (DRS), which is going to consist of over 100 vehicles with very highly sophisticated technological devices, including surveillance cameras capable of facial and number plate recognition. The state is currently constructing the Command and Control Centre. This way, every part of the state will be monitored.

In view of all these, there is no doubt that Enugu is ready for business. As the Investment and Economic Growth Stakeholders Roundtable kicks off, it can only be seen as a catalyst for an economic revolution that lies ahead. So, let the transactions begin.

Anichukwu is SSA (external relations) to the governor of Enugu state