In a bid to ramp up and showcase the enormous business opportunities that abound in Oyo State, Governor Seyi Makinde recently went on an investment drive and presented the first-hand data to attract more investors to the state at the Oyo State International Business Summit (OYSIBS) 2023, held in London. JOSEPH INOKOTONG, in this piece, catalogues some of the state’s investment attractions as espoused by the governor.
Oyo State possesses a lot of business attractions, which many discerning investors have tapped into, leaving behind those unaware of the friendly investment climate in the State.
For those blessed with business acumen, it was an eye-opener and a delight to learn from the recent presentation by Seyi Makinde, the governor of Oyo State, at the state’s International Business Summit, which took place at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London Kensington.
The debut edition of the OYSIBS 2023, titled ‘Accessing the Pioneer Advantage to Sustainable Investments in Oyo State’, availed the business community at the event with all it needed to know in order to make an informed decision about investing in Oyo State. Although in his presentation Governor Makinde decided to speak on the topic: “Your All Access Card to Sustainable Investments in Oyo State – Follow the Data”, which is closely linked to the theme, he spared no effort in satisfying the expectation of his audience.
Starting from the rudiments of demographics, Oyo State has a land mass of 28,454 square kilometers, which if put in perspective, about 18 times the size of London, coupled with an estimated population of over eight million people, was presented to the investors. Of this population, about 60 percent are between the ages of 16 and 54, which can aptly be described as a large working population. Data from the demographics show that Oyo State is a ready investment market based on its landmass and population, which provide a comparative advantage that very few states in Nigeria have.
However, what puts the State above others is the economic data that Governor Makinde shared with the potential investors. This was after he had provided some context.
For instance, in 2018, the World Bank published one of its last annual Ease of Doing Business Reports for subnational Nigeria, which it used four key indicators to rate Oyo State. These are “Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction Permits, Registering Property, and Enforcing Contracts.”
According to the governor, “Oyo State scored average to above average in three of these indicators. These are Starting a Business at about 76 percent, Dealing with Construction Permits at about 61 percent, and Enforcing Contracts at about 53 percent. The score for Registering Property was quite low at just about 22 percent. Oyo State scored 53.41percent in the Ease of Doing Business index overall”.
A thorough scrutiny of the data uncovered enormous room for improvement in property registration. So, after he assumed office in 2019, Governor Makinde’s administration got to work. First, it built on the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) Made Easy Scheme, which its predecessors had tried to operationalise. The goal was to ensure that properties could be registered in 60 days. A measure of success was achieved in this regard leading to an expansion of the project. It was renamed C of O Redefined, and commercial entities were pulled into the mix thereby moving the emphasis to the business community.
The administration did not stop there as it also looked at the other indicators that would attract big businesses to Oyo State. It worked on the regulatory environment. For instance, the Bureau of Public Procurement was made a separate agency and a private sector player was appointed as the Director General. One of the remits of this agency is to create opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Another thing the administration did was to create the Oyo State Public Private Partnership Agency (OYSIPA), a one-stop shop for investment opportunities in Oyo State. It became imperative to have an agency that would serve as a vital link to all these agencies because some of the compliance regulations that businesses must adhere to are within the purview of the Federal Government and there are bureaucracies associated with government in Nigeria as a whole. This is what OYSIPA does.
In addition, Governor Makinde told his audience that his administration is working with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to implement the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms (SABER) programme, which is coordinated by the PEBEC Secretariat and World Bank, and that so far, PEBEC has released two Ease of Doing Business Reports, the first published in 2021 and the second in 2023. PEBEC expanded the key indicators of Ease of Doing Business at a subnational level in Nigeria to include: Infrastructure, Transparency, Accessibility to Information, Secure and Stable Environment, Regulatory Environment, Skills and Labour, and Economic Opportunity.
“Based on these terms of reference, Oyo State showed a two-point improvement in perception by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in land and property acquisition going from 2.88 to 4.88. As mentioned earlier, our administration shortened the process of obtaining Certificates of Occupancy to 60 days. We also made it easier to pay taxes through the adoption of technology. Today, you do not have to go to the agency to pay any bills in cash, you can do so online from anywhere in the world,” Governor Makinde stated.
According to him, the indicator where Oyo State performed best is Skills and Labour. Though Nigeria has been facing a skills crisis in the last two years, with so many middle-class people leaving the country, Oyo State has taken steps to ensure that education and skills acquisition are prioritised.
For example, in the last four years, the State has consistently maintained a 15-20 percent budgetary allocation to the education sector in the State. With increased funding to all levels of the education sector, including the tertiary level, one of the three State-owned universities, the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) has been rated the best State-owned University in Nigeria for the past four years.
The administration has also prioritised skills acquisition in the sectors where the State has a comparative advantage. In this regard, as part of the focus on agribusiness in the last four years, the Makinde government has trained over 4,000 youths across the agribusiness value chain, and another 1,500 youths have passed through the Start Them Early Program (STEP), which trains young people aged 13-16 on various enterprises in the agribusiness value chain.
With these and other improvements, Oyo State has been able to create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive. One of the factors that the surveys revealed has played a key role in the decision-making process of MSMEs is the growing middle class in Oyo State. MSMEs rated Oyo State 5.83 in New/Range of Customers. Of course, this is always an important factor. The administration not only has a large working-class population, but it also has spending power as the government has ensured that about 8 percent of its working population who are government workers have received their salaries regularly and consistently in the last four years; suggesting an injection of N12 billion into the economy monthly.
The government has been able to better its economic standing among the Nigerian States through all its efforts in these past four years. It is on record that Oyo State is now one of the top five economies in Nigeria. “We now have a GDP of $8.67 billion in 2022. This is a growth of about 50 percent in four years. The number of enterprises within the state grew to 1,872,941. And we attracted Foreign Direct Investment of $65 million”, Governor Makinde said.
Against this background, it was obvious that the investors were already yearning to know how they could join the thousands of investors in Oyo State and benefit from the huge return on investment that has led to about a dozen of these investors joining the State at the summit to learn about how they can expand their businesses.
Governor Makinde went a step further in his presentation to answer pertinent questions about the investment opportunities available in Oyo State; how an investor can benefit from these opportunities and what the state government has done to ensure incoming investors get the support they need.
Starting with the investment opportunities available in Oyo State, Governor Makinde gave an overview based on the state’s focus sectors of agribusiness, solid minerals, sustainable energy, and tourism. He also talked about some infrastructure projects that are available to investors.
Agri-business
“We lead with Agribusiness. I suspect that this is because Agri-business begins with the letter A. But away from that, Oyo State has a comparative advantage in agribusiness. We have 2.85 million hectares of arable land and a climate and soil type suitable for most agribusiness enterprises. Right now, we are focused on building agribusiness industrial hubs. We have already shown proof of concept with the Fasola Agribusiness Industrial Hub. Some of the investors in this audience today are already subscribed to the hub”, Governor Makinde explained to the prospective investors.
Expatiating further, he noted that works at the hub is to have a built environment that supports various agribusiness ventures; livestock and crop production centers, warehouses for agro-logistics, and more. He also mentioned that work would soon start on Akufo, Eruwa, and Ilora Farm Settlements to convert them to agribusiness industrial hubs, and urged investors looking to develop one of the nine farm settlements in Oyo State to commence discussions in earnest as the State should be able to work out a Public Private and Partnership (PPP) development arrangement. The partnership involves building infrastructure that will make the area more business viable. For instance, to make the Fasola Agribusiness Industrial Hub accessible, the government is reconstructing the 34.85 km Oyo-Iseyin Road. In the next few years, he pledged the State’s readiness to inject $40 million into the livestock value chain through the World Bank-assisted Livestock Productivity & Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), which would ensure investors get the infrastructural support required in livestock production.
Dr Debo Akande, Executive Adviser on Agribusiness to the Governor who is also the Director General of the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency was at hand to explain in detail to those who showed interest to know in specific terms what deals the State has on agribusiness.
Solid minerals
This is one of three new entrants into the Oyo State investment portfolio. Many people have asked how they intended to attract investments into the solid minerals sector, whereas all minerals belong to the Federal Government. The Governor’s response was that all lies mainly in the Pacesetter Mineral Development Company (PMDC). The PMDC is the Special-Purpose Vehicle the administration used to acquire solid minerals titles. The State has exploration and mining titles. After surveying the areas where it holds titles, a database of minerals on those titles was created.
The Governor said, “I can tell you that we have deposits of Feldspar, Talc, Marble, Pyraiba, Gold, Tourmaline, Quartz, Beryl, and Granite. So, when you choose to partner with Oyo State, we will be able to tell you how much of a deposit of each of these minerals we have. That is one advantage of working with Oyo State in the solid minerals sector.
Another advantage is that Oyo State now hosts the International Gemstone Market in Adan in Akinyele Local Government Area, Ibadan Zone. This collaboration between the Oyo State Government and the Federal Government shows how important the State is in the gemstone industry conversation. So now is the time to locate ancillary facilities in the State. To learn more about investing in the Solid Minerals sector in Oyo State, please approach the Chairman of the PMDC, Abiodun Oni.”
Sustainable energy
This is another not-so-new addition to Oyo State’s investment portfolio. It is new in name only because the State has been developing this sector since 2019. First, the administration created the Oyo State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in 2019 primarily to develop policies and programmes to help the State meet residents’ energy needs. While the power sector was still mainly under the Exclusive List of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and so under the Federal Government’s control, Oyo State found a way of showing proof of concept for alternative energy sources to underserved communities. It built five mini-grids in various communities. At the same time, private investors have come on board to provide Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) to 17 more communities.
In addition, the State has worked with Fan Milk Plc to provide 1 MW of solar power and Nigerian Breweries Ltd to provide 600 kW with a plan to upgrade this to 3 MW. It also has the 11 MW Independent Power Project (IPP) and the Oyo State-Shell Nigeria Gas construction of a Pressure Reduction and Metering Station (PRMS), which will deliver an upside of 60 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to industrial, manufacturing and commercial entities.
Following the devolution of powers in the sector, Oyo State has created the Oyo State Electricity Regulatory Commission, allowing partnership with the private sector on large-scale energy provision. The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Barrister Temilolu ’Seun Ashamu was there to talk about more specific investments in the sector.
Tourism
Oyo State is rich in culture and history. As a State, it has barely tapped the available potential but the administration had spent its first four years in office laying the groundwork for this moment. At present, it has the market and the supporting purchasing power as it is already experiencing massive growth in MSMEs doing business in the hospitality industry. From our records, Oyo State now has 5,342 MSMEs in this sector, up from 3,918. This can be attributed mainly to the improved business outlook in the State. “Oyo State receives over 10,000 visitors into the state daily. Some come to stay, others are passing by, and others stay for a while. We are inviting you to invest in the Tourism sector. As you make this decision, bear in mind that we will be providing you with access to our database of all tourism sites in Oyo State and their unique features. You can also work with us in organising trade shows and other events that will be built around state-adopted cultural days. If you are excited about investing in Oyo State Tourism in more specific ways, our Commissioner for Information, Culture, and Tourism, Dr Wasiu Olatubosun, is your man”, the Governor said.
Infrastructure
One of the core focus areas in the past four years of Governor Makinde’s administration has been infrastructural development. He explained: “We met a huge deficit when we came into office, and we knew that we needed to get things going quickly. We started with the bigger projects such as the 65 km Moniya-Ijaiye-Iseyin Road, the 34.85 km Oyo-Iseyin Road, the 76.67 km Ogbomoso-Fapote-Iseyin Road, and the 48 km Ido-Eruwa Road. We are also working on completing the 110 km Senator Rashidi Ladoja Circular Road, which encircles the Ilutuntun Business District in Akinyele Local Government Area. As I mentioned earlier, the International Gemstone Market Centre is located at Akinyele Local Government Area. We plan to turn this zone into “the most futuristic growth corridor of the city of Ibadan.” So, within this radius, we also have the proposed Ibadan Inland Dry Port and the Railway Corridor. Do you already have ideas on how to collaborate with us? Let me mention that the Circular Road will be a tolled road, and we have already done the heavy lifting out there by constructing the first 32 km East-Wing and completing six bridges, including two interchanges along the route. Why not talk to our Commissioner for Public Works and Transportation, Prof Dahud Shangodoyin, about investing in Oyo State Infrastructure?”
At the end of his presentation, Governor Makinde reminded the attendees the summit was designed to market investment opportunities in Oyo State. “Each segment of this conference will focus on and expand on this main theme. I believe that by the time, the day ends and you are leaving this venue, you will have a comprehensive knowledge of the investment opportunities in Oyo State. In other words, we would have handed you the key to accessing sustainable investments in Oyo State. You will then be able to state without a doubt that Oyo State is your gateway into Nigeria’s thriving economy”, the obviously confident Governor assured.
No doubt, the elaborate presentation with graphic details of the abundant business potentials in Oyo State at the maiden edition of OYSIBS 2023, and the giant strides made by Governor Makinde’s administration in creating a conducive environment for business to strive will help in no small measures to attract more investors to the state.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then