Governor Mbah promises foreign investors that Enugu State is now open for business

GOVERNOR Peter Mbah of Enugu State has assured any potential investors who wants to open up shop in his domain that every step will be taken to ensure that all obstacles to smooth business are removed and guarantee they get a decent return on investment.

Speaking at the recent Second Existing Foreign Direct Investors Roundtable at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Governor Mbah told investors that his state has curacted many projects to bankability. at the event, he assured prospective multinational corporations that his administration would work with them every step of the way to not only create an enabling business environment but to also de-risk investment flow and ensure good return on investments.

Governor Mbah listed abundant opportunities and incentives in various sectors, such as agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, mineral resources, logistics, aviation, tourism, real estate, mineral resources and ICT, among others. According to a recent Presidential Enabling Business Environment Committee survey, Enugu is now among the few Nigerian states that multinational corporations are more likely to expand into.

This roundtable discussion attracted over 90 existing multinational corporations including Dow Chemicals, Microsoft, the Nigerian-French Chamber of Commerce, the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, the Euro Chamber of Commerce, the Indonesia-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese Corporate Group. Governor Mbah reiterated his administration’s ambition to grow the state’s economy sevenfold to $30bn over the next six years, hence the deliberate effort to make it the premier destination for investment, business, tourism and living.

He also maintained that the growth Nigeria seeks as a country would happen from the peripheral or sub-nationals, hence the massive steps by the Enugu State government to build infrastructure, ensure security of lives and property and enhance the ease of doing business. Speaking to the investors, the governor promised to remove any impediments to their operations in Enugu State.

Governor Mbah said: “For us in Enugu, we know that the investment will not happen because we wish it to happen. We recognise the fact that we need to work closely with prospective investors to see how we can help them to not just create the enabling environment, but also de-risk the investment flow.

“We curated quite a number of projects across different sectors to bankability. So, if you are coming to Enugu, we are going to be presenting you with opportunities that you may not need to spend so much time doing detailed feasibility because we have done full feasibility of most of these projects and you can take these feasibilities to the bank.

“We have also been able to invest hugely in infrastructure because given my business background, I understand that businesses are not charities they are not Father Christmas. They are interested in returns on investment.

“We have had quite a number of foreign direct investments that have been coming to Enugu in the last one year and the way we have made this work is largely by getting involved with them to understand fully how we can work with them to de-risk investment flow. In some cases, we provide the off-take that they need to make that entry and we have had quite a number of companies that have come into Enugu as their first entry point to the country."

He further listed other incentives such as the existence of the Enugu State Investment Development Authority as a one-stop shop for prospective investors, the existence of federal regulatory agencies in Enugu and the launch of Enugu State Geographic Information System Services, which had reduced Certificates of Occupant processing time to 72 hours. Governor Mbah assured investors that his government would take up  their applications and ensure that they get all the necessary licenses and approvals they need.