Folalumi Alaran
Writes that Nasarawa state is set to hold the 2024 edition of its annual investment summit next month in Lafia, the state capital
Nasarawa state government has finalised arrangements to host its annual investment summit in the state by May, 2024. The state governor, Abdullahi Sule, who disclosed this at a news briefing in Abuja, said the investment summit will be
coming up from May 15 to May 16 in Lafia, the state capital.
The governor said the expected outcome of the investment summit for 2024 will be intense investment opportunities.
He said: Believe me, even without the summit we are beginning to see that. That’s why I’m always running between one meeting or the other. Every time I come to Abuja I will attend at least seven to 10 meetings before I go back to Lafia. And that will strengthen what we started and it has worked for us, that is PPP.
“The PPP arrangement has worked so far from the last summit, and we want to continue to do that and then the infrastructural development. I always have an opportunity to express great appreciation to Mr. President because of the policies he came with, we have seen improved revenue for every state of the federation and with that, infrastructural development are springing up everywhere including in Nasarawa.
“We are also going to promote knowledge exchange and capacity building. In Nasarawa, we consider capacity building, especially human capital development key. And that is the reason why we came up with Nasarawa state human capital development agency where we have a full DG that is taking care of that one and of course the sustainable and inclusive development that we are looking at in totality Nasarawa state
“So I’m actually pleased and excited about the prospects of the summit for 2024 to usher in the Nasarawa industrial Renaissance.”
He said a structured strategy of developing skilled workforce to participate in the various industrial projects has been set in motion.
Sule said the summit with the theme “the Industrial Renaissance” would leverage the immense industrial, agricultural and mining potential of the state.
“The summit serves as a strategic platform to facilitate robust engagements, interactions, innovation problem solving, and for forging mutually beneficial relationships among key stakeholders, including government, industry leaders, investors and development partners.
“We will also host another edition of MSME Challenge as a way of involving small businesses to challenge the old ways of doing things... to deepen the spirit of entrepreneurship among our teeming youth,” he said.
Sule said some of the expected outcome of the summit would be enhanced investment opportunities, strengthened public private partnership, infrastructure development as well as knowledge exchange and capacity building.
He said from the 2022 summit, the state had worked out suitable and sustainable partnerships that would stand the test of time.
The governor added that some of the benefits of the 2022 summit have started manifesting in terms of inaugurated projects and deals.
Sule also announced that Nigeria’s first and largest Lithium Processing Plant of about 4000 metric tonnes a day will be inaugurated in Nasarawa state in May, 2024.
The governor, who said he had already met with the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake on the inauguration of the Lithium Processing Plant, added that the residents of the state would benefit from its industrial renaissance.
According to him, “In fact, I was at the Ministry of Solid Minerals and I met the Minister Dele Alake and the invitation was for him, to agree on the commissioning of the very first and the largest Lithium processing plant that we are going to have in Nigeria, which is going to 4000 metric tonnes a day which is coming up in the month of May in Nasarawa.
“Definitely industrialization plays a major role in economic development, creating employment opportunities, and improving the quality of life of citizens. And these are areas of focus as far as we are concerned in Nasarawa state.
“So we have had lots of meetings yesterday with so many potential foreign partners that are coming to be looking at retail investors. We had a Russian delegation. I also met with Japanese Ambassador and some other people.
“So just like the last summit, we are also going to create a Bureau. because last time so many deals were carried out and some of them are the ones that we are implementing. So similarly, this 2024 summit, we are going to create a Bureau where such activity will be carried on. And I’m happy that one of the issues of the roundtable is going to be energy, focus and that’s where the GACN comes in handy.
“Apart from the fact that we have the MOU I’ve always mentioned to whoever is interested in knowing that Nigeria indeed, when I work for an oil and gas company in the US, we are always looking at Nigeria as not an oil country, but actually a gas country that has oil, because Nigeria has far more gas than oil.
“So far, over 200 trillion standard cubic feet of gas reserves in the country. And yet 40 billion barrels of oil. What that means is that Nasarawa is also just coming up. Just for the site talks of it is that one of the reasons why all the drilling aspect has not been completed up till now is because they actually came across gas too early during the operation in Nasarawa state.
“I have been following that well and I want to make sure that it’s completed as soon as possible They actually came across gas too early so they have to do what we call the impartation of water in order for them to continue with the operation. So that’s how blessed Nigeria is and indeed Nasarawa state in this case.
“So we will continue to create this mutually beneficial relationship and that is the whole essence of the summit so that at the end of the day, the stakeholders including government, industry, leaders, investors and development partners and the political leaders who also come in to be part of it because they are interested in the arrangement because of policy that we are looking forward to. we will also focus on our MSME because Nasarawa state is a state that has a lot of small scale businesses.
“And so we’ll do everything possible to promote them so that we can be promoting entrepreneurship especially among our youth so we can drive that.”