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Mr. Achile Omali is the Special Adviser to Kogi State Governor on Finance, Commerce and Investment. The former Banking Executive and Investment Banking guru in an insightful interview with Eunice Emmanuel-Bagi talks about transforming the state into an investors hub, boosting investors confidence and stimulating the state, local and private economy.
Background
My name is Achile Omali, I am from Ankpa Local Government, I had my secondary education at the Federal Government College Kwali, Abuja. I have a B.Sc and MBA in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I have worked in the banking sector for almost all my life. I worked with UBA, Access Bank and Zenith Bank where I rose to the position of Relationship Manager. I worked with various facets of the Banking Sector; Operations, Marketing, Treasury and Investment Banking.
What is your understanding of the State’s economy?
Kogi state has been generally termed as a Civil Service State and over the years, the economy has revolved around the Civil Service and Small Scale Businesses. The economy of the state has never been an industrialized one. The economy over the years has revolved around the Civil Service and the informal sector which are the small scale businesses.
What strategies have been in place to bring the state out of its present economic sludge?
His Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Bello has said it several times that the era of calling Kogi State a Civil Service state is over. When he came, he set up a team who went round the state and came up with a New Direction Blueprint agenda and what was embedded in that agenda was to ensure that Kogi State and its economy is pulled out from the doldrums. We all know that the Civil Service over the years has been over bloated and one of the critical areas of the New Direction Blueprint is to reduce the over bloated Civil Service so that there can be more resources that can be channeled to other areas of the economy. Once that is done and we have a more effective Civil Service then we will have monies that can be channeled to other sectors of the economy, which will boost the States economy. One particular area the Governor has made his top priority is Agriculture and we know a lot can come out of Agriculture if the energies of the youth, women and men are channeled into it. This will lead to Agricultural revolution in Kogi State.
Other areas are Infrastructure and power, which are integral to the growth of businesses, especially small and medium scale enterprises. A lot Is being done in that area; we are trying to bring in investors who will invest in Power. Once that is sorted out, it will go a long way in helping small scale enterprises. Another area is good road network because how do you move goods and agricultural produce if there is no good road network? This is why this government is working assiduously to ensure that there is good road network across the three senatorial zones. A lot is also being done in the area of Industrialization. We have an industrial zone and a free trade zone that the state is working on. Once this comes on stream, we revolutionizing and making Kogi state an industrial hub. There are also so many other sectors like Transport, Tourism among others.
What are your long term and short term goals?
The vision of Alhaji Yahaya Bello is to make Kogi State the preferred investment destination in Nigeria. We are all aware that up till today most of the foreign investors coming into Africa, and most of them are coming into Nigeria.
If we have these investors coming into Nigeria then, Kogi State with all that it has been blessed with ultimately should be the destination of such foreign investors. should not come into Kogi state is the only state in Nigeria that is so centrally located; it is bound by ten states and the FCT so Kogi is a hub. We are blessed with natural and mineral resources we are also blessed with tourism so our long term strategic vision is to make Kogi State a preferred tourism destination in Nigeria. Our short term goal is to attract and sustain investment
How do you intend to get investors to invest in the state?
The first thing we are doing is to create an image;we must make them see reasons why they should come into Kogi State and invest. In the last few months, we have packaged our investment potentials in such a way that we can sell it to the world because it is not enough to say come and invest in Kogi State, you must first sell the idea of Kogi state to the world. We have so many who havent even heard of Kogi state so the world first has to know of the potentials in Kogi. We have done this, by mapping out all our investment potentials, like where we have our limestone, coal sites, tourist attractions and we are going to put these at Airports, Embassies and other strategic places so that when you think of Investment in Nigeria what comes to your mind is Kogi State.
Related to this is the fact that we are also planning an investment summit. This investment summit is expected to bring people from all scopes and sectors of the economy to see what we have and to brainstorm on how best we can exploit our resources for the benefit of our people. The summit is coming up hopefully by the next quarter of the year and we expect that by the time we bring this people in the state to see what we have to offer; it will also be a way of exposing the potentials we have.
What does the state stand to benefit from the upcoming investment summit?
The state stands to benefit a lot. Firstly, it exposes the state, and the state is going to be put on the world map. It is the first ever investments summit that will open the state to a whole lot of business opportunities. Business men and women can interact with these investors; and expose their businesses and what they can offer to the world. There are going to be exhibitions and the end of the day we intend to see investors flocking into the state.
Who are your target participants?
We are looking at people from all works of life; Academia, Business, Agriculture, you name it. We are looking at the beginning to end of the value chain of Agriculture, meaning that you do not come to farm our cashew and take it out.
We are looking for people who will come and farm Cashew; set up processing plants for cashew drinks, cashew nuts that are processed, packaged and exported all within the state. Apart from Agriculture and Agro-processing we are looking at other Key areas like Tourism, Kogi State is blessed we have so many Tourist attractions like Mount Patti in Lokoja, the 400-year-old Odogo Tower in Idah, the Ogengen-osi in Magongo, the colonial works in Agbaja among others. The fact that this is the only confluence state in Africa and that the history of Nigeria including its name emanated from here, all adds to the investment appeal of the state. Talking about mineral resources out of the 34 viable mineral resources that have been identified in Nigeria Kogi has over 30 of them. These are key areas that are embedded in the key thematic areas of the New Direction.
What are the plans by your office to stimulate the local and private economies?
A lot will is being done in the area of power which is integral to the growth of businesses. We will also be working with the Kogi State Chamber of Commerce to see how we can work with this people, they need a lot of training and a lot of incentives. We are seeing how we can bring people to invest in the small scale businesses that way we are able to create jobs for the unemployed and curb criminal tendencies in the state. Let me also add that a lot has been done by the Governor in the area of security by the Administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello in order to curb the activities of criminals and the likes. Kogi State is now safe and we can boldly call out to investors to come and invest in the state.
In more specific terms what is being done to boost investors confidence?
Security is a key area which I have spoken about earlier. The other area is the political will. What the investors want to see is the Political will of the Government and His Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Bello has this. In the past the states economy was not properly positioned for investors, but we have a Governor who has thrown his weight to ensure that this visions become a reality and that is what boosts investors’ confidence. Kogi State is ready for investors and we are calling on everybody both home and abroad to come and invest in Kogi State.
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