Economic Confidential, November 2008

COMMUNIQUE

Honourary International Investor Council of HIIC

Resolutions Arising from the 1thth Meeting of HIIC

The Honourary International Investor Council (HIIC) in Abuja on November 7, 2008 rose from its 7th Meeting under the Chairmanship of the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Council Coordinator, Baroness Lynda Chalker (UK)

The President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua also addressed the Council which is charged to discuss Nigeria’s development issues and challenges and come up with recommendations towards creating an enabling and attractive environment for inflow of investments to Nigeria’s emerging economy.

Membership of the Council is drawn from both within and outside Nigeria including Allan Patrickof (USA), Ruel Khazo (South Africa), Kazuo Korenaga (Japan), Jim Ovia, (Zenith Bank), Aliko Dangote (Dangote Group), Umaru Mutallab (First Bank) and Chief Emmanuel Ijewere among others.

Some of the issues and recommendations reached at the 7th Meeting include the following:

1.     There is a need for quick wins to allay the fears of those who believe no development progress is being made.

2.     There is a need for investment-friendly and tourism-targetted visa regime. A more liberal visa regime is in Nigeria’s strategic economic interest in the light of our Vision 2020-20 goals.

3.     There is a need for constant dialogue among government, private sector and the civil society since all the three are critical stakeholders in the Nigerian development project.

4.     There is a need to reduce the turn-around time of containers at the ports in order to reduce the time and material costs of delays.

5.     There is a need to review the expatriate quota policy in line with the need to attract more technical expertise and at the same time build local human capacity.

6.     The effective and sustained implementation of the plans and initiatives on Niger Delta should transform Niger Delta from a theatre of conflict to a nucleus of sustainable development.

7.     There is a new paradigm shift in agriculture that motivates the private sector to work better for agricultural development. Government needs to empower the private sector to solve the problems along the agricultural value chain rather than be preoccupied with struggling to provide inputs.

8.     There must be a drive for even utilization of all international airports in the country in order to reduce pressure on the more popular Lagos and Abuja airports. There is therefore a need to sign the appropriate Bilateral Air Services Agreements to allow foreign airlines use more of Nigeria’s international airports.

9.     Governments at the various levels need to work together and in concert with the private sector to ensure the rapid improvement in infrastructure needed to make Nigeria more attractive to investors and tourists.

10.                        There is a need for result-based management approach to development planning and execution in order gurantee efficient implementation and monitoring and ultimately ensure promote effective service delivery.

11.                        To ensure more effectiveness of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission in investment facilitation, it would be better to follow the international best practice of locating the Commission at the Presidency rather than under the supervision of a Ministry.

12.                        There is a need for greater investments by both government and private players in the power sector.

13.                        There is need to aggressively promote growth in non-oil sector and other real production sectors in order to achieve the 13 per cent growth rate that we need to achieve Vision 2020-20.

14.                        It has become imperative to diversify the economy away from oil to develop and tap other resources across the country.

15.                        There is an urgent need to increase the country’s petroleum refining capacity. Not refining oil in Nigeria is a travesty.

16.                        Urgent and imaginative solutions need to be found to the funding crisis associated with the joint venture operations.

17.                        All hands must be on deck (all levels and arms of government  must cooperate with the private sector and civil society) if Vision 2020-20 is to be realizable.