The Governor of Anambra State Willie Obiano was at the World Economic Forum held in Abuja recently and had time to speak with BusinessDay briefly on WEF and investment opportunities in Anambra, as foreign investors greatly look towards Nigeria. Excerpts:
You participated in the recently ended WEF in Abuja, what did you take away from the forum?
I was happy to be at the World Economic Forum to learn a few more things to add to the strategy I am running in Anambra State. The attendance was impressive and Africa is the focal point now in the world. First, we have the population and the growing market. Also, we have the youth and if I zero in on Nigeria, we are the largest attraction in Africa and from the re-basing of the GDP and looking at other things the Goodluck Jonathan administration is doing. But beyond that, if we listen to points being made at the forum, they strengthen the views I have with respect to my pillars to the development of Anambra State. The presenters talked about the role agriculture will play in empowering the youth in terms of creating job opportunities in terms of creating industries among others. Trade and commerce is another pillar. Most of the things we will do in oil and gas and agriculture will lead to business people selling goods and produce, and we need modern market to embark on the activities. I will embark on building modern markets in Anambra with a view to creating enabling environment for would-be people who would want to buy goods produced in the state. Also, industrialisation is another pillar I have in running Anambra. Security is critical in the development. My first emphasis is creating enabling environment by providing security and ensure there is electricity for business people in the state to have environment they need.
What specifically are you offering investors?
First, we are providing the enabling environment as government is not in the role of doing what private sector will do. The role of government is to ensure there is infrastructure, security, peace and harmony, enabling laws favourable to doing businesses in terms of C of O. In Anambra, we are trying to speed up the process of getting C of O to one week. Before now, it could take up to two years to get a C of O. There are other kinds of reforms we are doing in Anambra, and I encourage everybody to visit Anambra to invest now. Now is the time to give investors the land and provide the enabling environment for investors and tax breaks to enable investors produce goods competitively for competition in the world market.
The theme of the WEF is inclusive growth. How do you think this will be made possible, especially as the economy is growing but not trickling down to the people?
In economics, inclusive growth means growing and creating jobs. As you are growing, the level of poverty will be dropping, that is the only way to measure the growth in real terms. This is what President Goodluck Jonathan is pursuing and that is our objective in Anambra. Our growth strategy is inclusive and that why in Agriculture we are trickling down to involving the grassroots and re-training them and equipping them to enable them produce goods. We are creating wealth and not for the wealth to evenly distributed. Anambra is endowed with most resourceful people. The state came first in the nation in the last WASC, and we have been doing well in the academics and that leads to producing the best graduates and they need jobs. The only way the inclusive growth will come is that the policies create more jobs and as more jobs are created wealth is distributed and the economy can thrive and business can grow.
Apart from agriculture, what are the other investment opportunities existing in your state?
What the investors are interested in is the enabling environment. They ask questions on security, peace and stability, electricity and road infrastructure to enable them distribute their goods and services and the other enablement such as favourable laws and ease of land acquisition and other tools to enable them to come. Already, I am getting calls for commendations on security and on other policies, and in a very short term, investors and manufacturers will troop in and begin activities.
When you say short term, can you be specific?
Economics talk about medium to long term. Medium is about nine months and long term about beyond two to three years.
