Khalil Nur Khalil is the Executive Secretary, Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency (KADIPA). In this interview with FRANCIS KADIRI, he discusses the efforts being made by the agency to market the trade potentials of Kaduna State to the international community, stating that KADIPA is already in partnership with NIPC, NEPC, NEXIM Bank, BoI and MSMEs to attract investments to the state while creating jobs and boosting the IGR. Excerpts:
What is KADIPA doing to attract foreign investment to Kaduna State?
In terms of investment promotion, KADIPA comes first. States across the federation engage us in peer learning reviews, and we also try to share views and experiences of with other Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in the country.
Kaduna State is, however, No. 1 in the Ease of Doing Business ranking in Nigeria; the State is also No.1 in Transparency Index. So, we’re going global. We’ve joined the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, engaging MSMEs and to see how by bringing investors that will boost their capacity.
The next phase is transition to a knowledge-based economy; we’re focusing on three key pillars, digital economy, value-added economic activity, and infrastructural development. We want to see how we can service the entire Nigerian market and how do will integrate all these into the world global value chain.
KADIPA is working with relevant partners to make Kaduna State a technology hub. We have a working partnership with the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation, and we are training youths on how to become freelancers. So the digital economy drive is there. We are very data driven, and I invite you to visit our website.
We are also partnering with the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) – Kaduna State is their shining star, and are partnering the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM Bank), the Bank of Industry (BOI), and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEs) among others.
We will continue to create linkages that will continue to boost the IGR of the state significantly.
When was KADIPA established?
KADIPA was established by Law No.17 on December 23, 2015 and it began operations in 2016. The agency promotes, facilitates, and originates investments into Kaduna State via Greenfield Projects, commercialization, public-private-partnership PPP and privatization. We are also tasked with the responsibility of showcasing the State via summits, roundtables and brochures among other strategies.
We are also tasked with ensuring that there is ease of doing business. This we do by ensuring that there is a good business environment. We do that by coordinating the relevant ease of doing business, focusing on ministries, departments and agencies MDAs to ensure that businesses and investors get their licenses, permits, Certificates of Occupancy within a short time.
It is because of these efforts that Kaduna State was ranked No.1 in the ease of doing business ranking of 2018 by the World Bank. We have also expanded the portfolio of investments in Kaduna State from little to about $2.0 billion in both pledges and actual grants.
We have also been able to increase the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) from N13 billion in 2015 to about N50.7 billion in 2020 due to the concerted effort of automating all the processes of the MDAs for the ease of doing business. We have done this without increasing taxes, we simply enforced collection and automated the services within the Kaduna Internal Revenue Service.
Other reforms include the creation of KADGIS, the Geographic Information Service and the Consolidated Tax Law among others.
In addition, we established two economic zones, the Green Economic Zone and the Green Agro Allied Zone, and we would be able to situate business there and market them accordingly.
What are your areas of focus?
We are tasked with economic development in Kaduna State, what this entails is that we are trying to leverage on private capital to grow the state’s economy, because we believe the state government should not just be an employer of workers. Moreso, 75% of the population is below the age of 35, so we want to ensure that these businesses employ people across the state.
Our focus is to market the state, bring in investors who will create jobs that will eventually help us achieve set goals of IGR.
Once investors come, they create impact within the community, they provide the much-needed infrastructure and utilities across the state. So, the focus is to ensure that Kaduna State has enabling environment for businesses to come in, so we can leverage on private capital.
With the laid-back attitude of the average Northerner, where does much of businesses come from, is it domestic or foreign?
They are within the state, but we have a few Direct Foreign Investments (DFIs). Those are the large investments like $6-50 million from large industries like Dangote. However, the number of domestic investors is more than the foreign direct investments. The only difference is that with the FDIs, its the size of the investment, e.g. someone from US would bring a million dollars but internally we have people who set up small factories, those ones are 10,000 or 100,000 dollars worth.
“The government has made public its plan, the private sector will give us their input. We all come together to see how we can push the economy forward. So, sensitization is a challenge. We want people to know more about what we are doing, we want the public to know that KADIPA is here to help investors
“
What is the attraction for investors?
The attraction is that they have seen a government that has the political will for them to set up their businesses. What that means is that we have a state development plan, we have said we are going to transform the economy of the state to a knowledge-based economy.
They know that our Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is someone who is serious, someone who would protect their investments. Once they see all of these, they approach us, they apply, we screen them via the investor checklist, we take them to site, they inspect the land they wish to invest on, we ensure they get the necessary permits and licenses they need to take off.
After that, we begin after-care services by which we ensure the business retention and expansion. We want to ensure that they remain in Kaduna and expand their businesses to even create more jobs for our teeming youths.
We have sat down to institute deliberate policy measures that will cater to businesses, and so far, so good.
For interested investors what are the requirements?
We have this investor check list, the basic requirement is that you make your submission, your company profile, tax clearance, and then we vet your technical and financial capability, how much expertise do you really have within the industry, your experience, etc., and who is your technical partner, we sit down and meet with investors on a case-by-case basis.
And then we assess your financial capability and determine whether or not a prospective investor has the funds needed to mobilise to site. Once we do all these checks, we do our recommendation to the relevant MDA e.g. KADGIS or KASUPDA, but we are there to coordinate because we are the one-stop shop investment center for investors.
What was the scenario before and after you came on board in 2018?
Initially, we had moribund industries. Nobody was marketing the state. Our industrial hub was zero, there were no activities. The situation has changed now.
In all these sectors that you mentioned, which one is the most profitable in terms of investments?
Definitely it’s the agricultural sector because we are an agrarian state, we have some $100m portfolio projects in the agric sector. The reason why the solid mineral sector is the largest is because of the Africa Natural Resources and Mines Development Limited in Kagarko, Kaduna State, is the largest FDI project in 2020.
This steel plant is probably the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, it will revolutionize the industrialization of the North if not Nigeria as a whole. It will be producing the flat sheets needed by Dangote car plant. They talking about completing the steel plant in 2022, so we are monitoring to ensure they stick to the work plan, but it’s a big one that will add serious value, creating upwards of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Insecurity is no doubt a challenge, what other challenges are you facing?
Aside from security the other challenge is just getting people to be in line with your state development plan. The government has made public its plan, the private sector will give us their input. We all come together to see how we can push the economy forward. So, sensitization is a challenge. We want people to know more about what we are doing, we want the public to know that KADIPA is here to help investors.
