By Salif Atojoko

 The Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) says it is developing a masterplan to attract more Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into the country.

Hajiya Saratu Umar, Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, NIPC, said this at a media briefing on Monday in Lagos.

She said the commission would achieve the vision of transforming the country into a destination of choice for investors through a Nigerian Investment Promotion Masterplan (NIPM), which would be ready within two months.

Umar explained that the masterplan would look at different sectors of the Nigerian economy that would attract FDIs,  such as agriculture, solid minerals and infrastructure.

She said that it would provide investment strategies for every sector, which would help investors with vital information to take investment decisions.

According to her, the masterplan will also detail strategies with which the commission will engage investors, both foreign and local.

“We will lean more on agriculture, mining and infrastructure. Particularly for agricultural products and solid minerals, we will look at the value chain; how to minimise exporting them as raw materials but as finished products.

“We must encourage investments in the non-oil sector, which will generate more foreign exchange for the country.

“The non-oil sector is not doing badly, but we need to do more as a country to promote investments in the sector rather than depend solely on the oil sector,” said Umar.

Speaking on the challenges of the business environment such as insecurity in some parts of the country and poor infrastructure, she said they were not enough to deter foreign investors.

“Our duty is to promote Nigeria as an investment destination of choice.

We have challenges like many other countries.

“There is no country in the world that does not have one form of challenge or the other,” she said.

The NIPC boss said the country’s challenges in the power and transportation sectors were also investment opportunities.

“The challenges represent opportunities for investors to come in and invest in these sectors, and in the process create jobs for Nigerians.

“Even with the security situation, in our engagements with foreign investors, we tell them there are still some parts of the country that are safe, where investors’ aspirations will be met.

“And we are confident that in the areas we have security challenges, those challenges will soon be over. The security challenges will not be forever, we hope they will fizzle out.

“We will work with other agencies to resolve some of the issues so that we can achieve the desired objective,”