Igwe Umoji, Igwe Cyril Enweze laments attracting of $ 7.2bn investment in three years in Anambra by ANSIPPA without anything on ground

www.odogwublog.com reports that the Chairman of Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency(ANSIPPA) who is also the traditional ruler of Umuoji in Idemili North local government area of the state HRH, Igwe Cyril Enweze appears to be lamenting that the said investment into the various sectors of the state's economy which has reached a cumulative sum of $ 7.2 billion dollars has no direct bearing on the state.

The chairman of the board of the agency, told journalists in his palace that about thirty MoUs had been signed with seventy five percent of them at varying degrees of agreement and implementation but yet to see the impact.

But optimistic  Enweze an Economist said the quantum of investment attracted to the state was largely due to the coherent economic policy of Gov. Willie Obiano and the enabling business environment in the state.

The traditional ruler said the agricultural sector was by far the most patronised sector followed by the aviation sector got the single largest chunk of the investment with the inauguration of the $2.2 billion dollar Airport City project on April 11.

He said some of the MoUs had not been implemented because of the instability in the local economy which had led to depreciation of the naira from N196 when they signed to over N450.

He described as fallacious and outdated the notion that states could not compare with the federal government in terms of FDI attraction, he said the figures should be revised to reflect efforts of states chasing investment.

According to him, the facts about the investment volume were verifiable as the partners were on ground adding that most states in the country were now more aggressive on FDI drive than the federal government.

 Enweze who is the Traditional Ruler of Umuoji town, Idemili South said Anambra government was interested in Public Private Partnership but did not give investors sovereign guarantee as some other states do.

 He said giving sovereign guarantee often result in public sector corruption, and inability of states to pay their bills including payment of salaries because such moneys were deducted at source from federal allocation.

 “So far over the past three years, despite the difficult situation, despite the investment climate in Nigeria economic environment, ANSIPPA has been able to attract a record volume of $ 7.2 billion is including the $2.2 airport city project which was just flagged off on Tuesday.

 “This feat has been possible because of the security, coherent vision and blueprint of the governor which gave rise to the Anambra economic equation of four pillars and 12 enablers.
 “In terms of sectorial distribution, agriculture is the sector where we have made the greatest impact this is because it is a priority sector and pillar of the Gov. Willie Obiano’s economic blue print.

 “At the moment we have signed about 30 MoUs which are not binding in themselves but about 75 per cent of them are on ground in terms of varying degrees leading to agreements that would make them binding.

 He said ANSIPPA was set up in 2014 in the context of Obiano’s blueprint for economic development of Anambra; it is staffed with technocrats and not politicians.

 “The agency is a one-stop shop for investors because the people that are involved in approval, licensing and permits are part of the agency; and in the process, all the bottlenecks associated with a typical Nigeria setting are removed.

 “The idea of spending eternity to get approval for a viable proposal is removed because it is a one stop shop. The investors don’t have to bribe anybody and if that happens, the contractor and the person that takes the bribe will be in trouble,” he said.

Igwe Umoji, Igwe Cyril Enweze laments attracting of $ 7.2bn investment in three years in Anambra by ANSIPPA without anything on ground Igwe Umoji, Igwe Cyril Enweze laments attracting of $ 7.2bn investment  in three years in Anambra by ANSIPPA without anything on ground Reviewed by Unknown on Saturday, April 15, 2017 Rating: 5

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