Katsina State government says it has concluded plans to stage an economic and investment summit as part of measures to diversify the state ailing economy.
The summit which is scheduled to take place from May 9 to 11, next month is expected to attract investors,industry leaders within and outside the country.
Ibrahim Tukur Jikamshi, chairman of the summit organizing committee, made this disclosure in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay at the weekend in Katsina.
According to him, the summit was conceived as a platform to showcase the state’s natural economic potentials to the outside world, as well as to attract investors to the development needs of the state.
“The Katsina State Economic and Investment Summit is about diversification of the state’s economy; it is about creating awareness among the citizens of the state, about the need to be entrepreneur conscious, and to be creative and self-reliant.
“The summit is going to be a forum where we will bring together people that have the capacity to invest within the state, the country, and the world at large to deliberate on the investment opportunities available in the state, and to look at ways of tapping into the opportunities”, he explained.
Jikamshi revealed that the summit was also borne out of the policy trust of Aminu Masari’s administration, aimed at ensuring that all under-utilised resources were put into productive use.
He said that the summit with the theme, ‘Unlocking Investment Potentials for Sustainable Development’ was conceived in line with government’s policy trust, which focuses on holistic development of the state.
Commenting further on the summit, the chairman added that the summit would also be showcasing the several selling points of the state to the investors that will participate in the event.
“The selling points of the state are numerous; however, the primary objective of the summit is to expose to the people what they know or may not have known about the state; one of the things we want to expose to them is the state’s agriculture potential; when it come to agriculture, Katsina is number one in the area of cotton production in the country. This is a big selling point and the state is doing everything possible now to position itself as the leading cotton production and processing hub in West Africa.
“Secondly, Katsina State is the number two producer of sugar cane in the country, and the state is also trying to position itself as the leading exporter of refined sugar in the ECOWAS sub region. Katsina is also the second biggest producer of Sorghum in the country; so, certainly, the state is trying to leverage on this advantage to attract investment from the world leading producer of the commodity which is America to develop the commodity across the value chain”, he posited.
Continuing, he said, “another selling point is that Katsina is currently ranked number seven in terms of ease of doing business in the country, rated far better than Kano, far better than Lagos, even far ahead of Rivers State; these are states that people naturally believe are more viable than Katsina.
“Similarly, the peace and tranquillity, which the state is enjoying is also another very important selling point, and most importantly the state is land linked with the neighbouring Niger Republic, and you know once you are linked to Niger Republic, you are linked as far as to the whole of the Sahel region of the world”, he stated
Jikamshi disclosed further that big corporate entities such as Dangote Group, Ericson Food, Cadbury, and other big players in the agriculture value chain would be participating in the summit.
In the same vein, he hinted that several foreign countries have also indicated interest to participate in the summit, adding that, in these companies, many small companies that have interest in playing on a small scale will also be coming.
