Since the 21st of August 2023, when Chief Nyesom Wike resumed office as the Hon Minister of the FCT, Abuja has not been the same. The FCT has become once more a big construction site with road works causing diversions and attendant traffic jam. The citizens of Abuja definitely see and feel the arrival of Mr. Project as he is fondly called by adversaries and admirers. Abuja is changing just as Port Harcourt changed. I have met with Nyesom Wike and he touched my life on our first meeting without asking for anything in return. I owe him advise based on my experience.
All stakeholders to the FCT have the obligation to rally round Mr. Project to succeed in his avowed task of retaining Abuja’s Master plan, secure the FCT and tackle the problem of land grabbing amongst other challenges of the FCT.
Among the stakeholders, the staff of the Ministries, Parastatal Agencies and companies in the FCT make up the engine room to facilitate and actualize this objective. Of all of them, Abuja Investment Company Limited is at the heart of the engine room. Reason being that development and administration costs a lot of money and resources. The State of our economy and the lean resources has even made it more difficult than ever before. Inflation has raised the cost of development and resources to the highest level ever. Meanwhile, insecurity across Nigeria has forced Abuja to grow beyond the original target of about 3 million to well over 7 million people with the attendant pressure on infrastructure.
This is where AICL Abuja Investment Company limited comes in. Abuja Investment Company limited AICL is a Nigeria Development and Investments company of the Federal Capital Territory for the Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA. It provides investments for the economic development for Federal Capital Territory region in Nigeria. It is the Flagship Investment and holding company for the FCT.
Abuja Investment company Ltd is an investment company with the mission to develop Abuja into a world class city using private sector funds from local and foreign sources. It’s the landing pad for investors seeking to invest in Abuja without the bottleneck and bureaucracy of the Civil Service. It serves as a nursery for development and investment of ideas and processes for investors. It takes care of teething problems faced by investors with investible funds by saving time and
irritating bottlenecks. So, the investor comes in and hit the ground running. In football AICL is the midfield, the engine room that creates the move and gives the attacker the through pass to score the goal.
The need for AICL has become even more profound today because there is need for a trillion United States Dollars to develop Abuja into a world class city like London, Singapore, Dubai or New York.
However, Mr. Project has to rely on a budget of 1 trillion Naira to do the magic. That is impossible, AICL has to step in by bridging the gap between the FCTA and the investors who have these funds in Abuja, Lagos, New York, Frankfort, London, Dubai, Qatar and Singapore to come down to Macedonia and help us.
A foreign investor in Dubai understands the language spoken at AICL more than that spoken at the ministry because of time constraints. He comes in a private jet or first- class ticket and has 48 hours to tie up a deal to inject USD 100 million to build an ultra-modern 7-star hospital or build a USD 20 million world class abattoir. He may be interested in investing USD 4 billion to set up modern Dubai type of urban transit system integrated with Digital Security System to make committing pleasurable, safe and reduce crime to the barest minimum.
AICL should be able to sort out all issues of land with the ministry, permits with Government MDA’s, feasibility and viability reports and insolate these investors from the harsh and rudimentary economic environment. Doing this attracts that fund for the benefit of Abuja stakeholders thereby saving our hard-working minister the stress of looking for resources but concentrate on administration of the FCT.
Mr. Project needs his match at Abuja Investments Company Ltd. I wish Mr. Project a successful tenure.
Hon. Osita Opara is the immediate past chairman of Investment and Strategy Committees of the Board of Abuja Investment Company Ltd.
He is a serial Entrepreneur; An Investment Banker; A development Enthusiasts.
