Nasarawa eyes N125bn investment from inaugural economic summit

The Nasarawa State government has projected a fresh $300m (N125bn) investment into the state with the planned maiden Nasarawa State Investment Summit taking place next month, Daily Trust can report.

This emerged at a briefing to unveil the summit by the state Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Sule organised by the Nasarawa State Investment and Development Agency (NASIDA).

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The summit with the theme “#DiamondintheRough – The Making of a New Investment Frontier” is a 2-Day event holding from the 11th to 12th of May 2022 at the State Banquet Hall, Government House, Lafia in Nasarawa.

Sule who addressed newsmen in Lagos virtually explained that the summit was aimed at selling the endowments of the state to local and international investors while boosting the economic development of the state.

He disclosed that the state’s economic development strategy is already yielding results in terms of increasing the internally generated revenue of the state from N7.8bn in 2019 when he took over to 16bn.

According to him, the summit would be different from other economic summits as the government would concentrate on its areas of the state in agriculture and mining in addition to leveraging on its proximity to the federal capital and other regions of the country.

He stated that the summit is part of the implementation of the Nasarawa Economic Development Strategy (NEDS 2019-2023), which his administration commissioned on the assumption of office.

“We are already seeing the implementation of this NEDS in the sense that it is already improving the revenue generation of the state,” he said.

He added that Nasarawa State has also improved in the area of standard of living of the people, upscaling from 24 to number 12 in the last two years.

He stated that the state also came up with a lot of legal frameworks to provide safety nets, especially for investors.

In a chat with our correspondent, Barr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, the MD/CEO of NASIDA, disclosed that the state is eyeing fresh $300m investments from the summit in addition to the opportunities the state has already created through its economic blueprint.

He noted that over 13 public-private partnership projects had been attracted through its robust PPP arrangement, adding, “The government has increased the IGR by over 200 per cent, which is contributing to the funding of projects.”

Chairman of NASIDA, Prof. Konyin Ajayi said the administration of Governor Sule believes greatly in partnering with the public and private sector to promote economic development and social justice, saying the summit would go a long way in laying a solid foundation for the economic growth by building infrastructure that would impact on the lives of the people.

He was optimistic that the economic summit would generate ample investments for the state to ensure social infrastructures like roads and public health facilities, among others, get to the nooks and crannies.