Abia State Governor Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, has inaugurated the management team of the Abia State Public Private Partnership and Investment Promotion Board
During the inauguration on Thursday 24th, October at his Umuehim Nvosi country home in Isiala Ngwa Local Government Area of the State, Governor Otti said that the delay in inaugurating the board was deliberate as a lot needed to be done to get the State ready for the kind of things they would be doing, which is investment promotion and seeking partnerships with the Private Sector.
Governor Otti re-echoed his earlier Statements that investors are smart and can access information thousands of miles away without visiting a place to make informed investment decisions. “I have always said that the private sector and investors are very, very smart. They think with their feet, they can get information that are hundreds of thousands of miles away sitting in the comforts of their homes”. “If you have not fixed your environment, if you have not made your environment conducive to attract businesses; to attract investments, they will not come. And, if they come and discover that they made a mistake which they hardly do, or notice that what they thought was there is not there, they will volt with their feet”. “For us, creating a conducive environment was much more important than looking for investments,” the Governor stated.
Dr. Otti referred to a recently published report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which puts Abia as the third investment destination in Nigeria after Lagos State and Abuja the Federal Capital Territory in terms of numbers. “Recall that in a recent report by the NBS, between June 2023 and June 2024, Abia was among the 6 States and the only State in the Southeast with foreign investments totaling $150.9 million” (Capital Importation, NBS).
The Governor explained that these investments came on their own as the investors took note of what his administration was doing. In his words, “These are investments that just came on the basis of what they know we are doing, not because we went to campaign. We have not campaigned to anybody; we don’t even have investment pitch. We will be requiring you to sit down, and draw up a pitch”. He told the PPP and Investment Promotion Board that they were being inaugurated at the right time and have their jobs cut out, noting that they were men of skills whose appointments were based on merit and competence. He thanked them for accepting to serve.
In his vote of thanks, the team leader/Director General of the Board, Mr. Chinedum Chijioke, thanked the Governor for seeing them worthy to serve, promising that they will live up to expectations. He Went on to say that they will ride on the momentum Governor Otti has created to make Abia the preferred investment destination in Nigeria and Africa. He expressed happiness that investors are already coming without any pitch.
Mr. Chijioke noted that Abia has never had it this good in the last 25 years and went on to describe Governor Otti as the Nehemiah of Abia whom God has sent to rebuild Abia and called on all Abians to join hands with him to rebuild Abia. Other members of the board are Pastor Gabriel Ekpendu, Uchenna Nnaomah, Nkemdirim Alex Okoroafor and Dr. Collins Ulu is the Secretary/Legal Adviser.
Ctz. UKOHA NJOKU UKOHA
Chief Press Secretary to the Executive Governor of Abia State.
24-10-2024