The Chairman/CEO,Nigerians in Diaspora Commission NiDCOM,Hon Dr Abike Dabiri-Erewa OON today at a media conference in Abuja unveiled activities for the Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit NDIS2022.
The Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit the fifth in the series, is due to take place at the State House, Aso Presidential Villa, from Tuesday 15th to Thursday 16th November, 2022 from 9am to 6pm daily.
The event according to the organizers is a hybrid, enabling remote participation via online channels.
This year’s summit will have as its distinguished Chairman and Main Keynote Speaker, HE the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and will focus on selected sectors including agribusiness, technology, education, healthcare, real estate and infrastructure. Others are creative, sport and entertainment; energy, mining and manufacturing.
NDIS2022 will feature a Special Session showcasing major investment opportunities in Ondo State under the theme: “Develop Ondo 2.0: Hub of Investment Opportunities” sponsored by the Ondo State Government, with particular focus on the Ondo Port development initiative.
Other high-profile guests expected to attend the summit include Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu SAN; Alhaji Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Governor of Kebbi State; Alhaji Abdullahi Sule, Governor of Nasarawa State; Mr Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, Governor of Ekiti State; Mr Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN, Honourable Minister for Works and Housing.
Also invited to attend are Senator Michael Ana-Nnachi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organizations; Honourable Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Diaspora; Mr Godwin Emefiele Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Mr Ebenezer Onyeagwu, Managing Director, Zenith Bank; Mr Mele Kolo Kyari, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and Mr Kayode Pitan, Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BoI).
Despite not being a “talkshop” but a B2B matchmaking event, the summit will nevertheless hear from some selected speakers, including Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Secretary, Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC); Madam Lara Okunubi, Chairman, Nigerian-American Public Affairs Committee (NAPAC); Chief Bimbo Roberts Folayan, Founder/CEO, Nigeria Diaspora Direct Investment Summit (NDDIS) and Dr Joe Madu, President, US-Africa Chamber of Commerce.
Thematic keynotes will be given by Ezra Yakusak PhD, Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Dr Chris Brooks, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Brown Venture Group LLC Management, USA; with focal presentations from Chief Boye Oyewumi, Chairman, Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA); Mr Inderjit Singh, Managing Director Olam Food Ingredients Nigeria, and Rufus E. Egbegba PhD, Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, National Biosafety Management Agency.
The summit is spread over 3 days with Day 1 (15th) featuring the formal opening, main plenary, tour of exhibition booths and the Special Session, a special showcase on the vast investment opportunities in Ondo State under the theme: “Develop Ondo: Hub of Investment Opportunities”. This will be followed by the first pitching session of the summit.
Slated for Day 2 (16th) is display of the huge investment opportunities represented by the multi-million-dollar Mambila power project of the Federal Government in which 30% of the investment opportunities have been ring-fenced for Nigerians in Diaspora. This will then be followed by an extended session where those business and NGO promoters who registered through the summit website www.ndisng.com will have the floor to pitch their business opportunities to the investors present either in person or online.
The 3rd day features a morning session dedicated to private business meetings and concludes with a gala dinner in the evening.
Owing to the close linkage between ease of doing business and investor attraction, NDIS has maintained a collaboration working relationship with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to help eliminate bureaucratic barriers to doing business in Nigeria and make the country an easier place to start and grow a business and attract foreign direct investment into the country, especially for Nigerians in Diaspora. To this end, NDIS2022 is expected to feature a presentation by the Secretary of PEBEC, Dr Jumoke Oduwole on the progress made and successes achieved by PEBEC in easing the path to investing and doing business in Nigeria.
Hundreds of participants comprising at least 95 identified Nigerian Diaspora investors, 185 small business owners, 130 representatives of private sector entities and 110 public officials from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies are expected to attend NDIS2022 in person, with a further 200 expected to participate virtually.
NDIS is a private sector initiative backed and enabled by government through the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM). Its primary aim is to demonstrate that in the face of stiff competition for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), targeting Nigerians in Diaspora for inward investment is probably the best strategy for a country like Nigeria with over 15m of its citizens gainfully domiciled in Diaspora.
Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,Prof Yemi Osinbajo who has consistently addressed the summit since its inception in 2018, has described it as “unarguably one of the surest means of securing investments for the local economy”.
Similarly, NDIS has been characterised by Prince Niyi Adebayo, Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment “as a deliberate, effective and sustainable strategy for attracting inward investment into Nigeria’s robust economy”.
In the same vein, Amb Zubairu Dada, Honourable Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, remarked that the summit has “perpetually sought ways of improving itself; thus, providing richer content that are beneficial to stakeholders.”
On his part, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, Honourable Minister for Works and Housing, said that “…through the NDIS, Nigeria is clearly on the move towards economic progress.”
Since inception NDIS has recorded many success stories, both in terms of business connections and social impact. With over 3,000 participants recorded, 900 business links established and over 200 deals closed, NDIS has come into its own as the leading business networking event for connecting Nigerian business owners and NGO operators with Nigerian Diaspora-based investors. It has also provided a platform for the Diaspora community to give back by providing support for several deserving NGOs.
A few of the local firms companies that have benefited through participating at NDIS, include start-ups like Opalson Nigeria Limited which exports agro commodities from Nigeria to the international market and Nairaxi (logistics tech); Surejobz App (recruitment tech) and iSTEMLabs Africa (education tech) all of which have been featured at previous NDIS summits.
As a result of the connections made and information gained during previous summits, several participants have been inspired to start their own businesses while some investors had tripled their stake in the country based on the insights gathered from the summit. Some non-profit organisations also benefitted from donations from US-based grant-maker ROBUR Foundation. These include the Association of Female Agripreneurs, Royal School of Educational Therapy Foundation, Vantage Point Academy, The N100-a-Day School, Godwin Uzoma Ironkwe Foundation.
Through its partnership with the AFRICA CHAMBER OF DIGITAL COMMERCE INC. USA, a high profile international organisation, four MSMEs who pitched successfully at the 2021 summit were invited to participate as part of the USA pavilion at the Dubai Expo on March 18, 2022, where they interacted with Gen Z millionaires and billionaires with a view to attracting them to invest in their ventures.
Some state governments like Borno, Nasarawa and Ondo, have keyed into this strategy and are already reaping the rewards.
At the 2021 summit, the Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA) made a strong pitch anchored on its vast opportunities in cocoa production (leading producer in the country); oil palm production (4th largest); oil and gas (5th largest) as well as tourism and its proximity to Lagos.
Similarly, Nasarawa State, whose Governor is a seasoned Diaspora returnee, outlined a vast array of opportunities coupled with a bouquet of incentives for investors through its vehicle, Nasarawa State Investment and Development Agency (NASIDA) – a one stop shop. These include opportunities in technology, real estate and agriculture, all of which have recently been migrated to an online portal available to the public: https://www.nasida.na.gov.ng/nasarawasummit
Borno State equally presented an attractive basket of opportunities as well as fiscal and non-fiscal incentives. These include agro-allied industries, solid mineral exploration, cattle ranching and livestock breeding, developing of modern abattoirs and meat processing plants. Others include gum Arabic plantations and processing; development of leather tannery and shoe industries as well as development of container ports and irrigation schemes at Marte, Alaau Lake and Baga. Some of the incentives on offer include tax relief for research and development, pioneer status, Local Raw Material Utilization; expedited processing of land acquisition applications, especially for export-oriented industries and those located in Economically Disadvantaged Areas.
These success stories further buttressed the fact that NDIS is not just one of the surest platforms for attracting Diaspora investment into the local economy but also a vital catalyst to spurring new business start-ups.
Beyond the frontiers of business and the economy, the impact of Nigerians in Diaspora is also felt in the social sphere. Nigerians in Diaspora contributed the sum 80 million naira to support the nation during the height of the Covid-19: provision of food assistance, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), seminars on basic hygiene, training for health workers as well as educational programmes for children during the lockdown, all of which played a key role in the government’s effort at tackling and reducing the Covid-19 caseload.
NDIS2022 will continue to build on the successes achieved through previous summits, exploring new and yet more innovative avenues for attracting Diaspora investment in local businesses with a view to “Optimizing Investment Opportunities for National Development”, and accelerating the socio-economic development of the country.
It is worthy of note that in all of this, the role of the media has been of mission-critical importance. Without the warm, cordial and symbiotic relationship NDIS has enjoyed with the media, particularly through NiDCOM, it is doubtful that this amount of success would have been recorded. It is for that reason, therefore, that the summit organisers – NDSI and NIDCOM – in unity of voice, wish to say a very big THANK YOU to all the media organisations and partners who have contributed to the success story that NDIS has become today. It is our wish and prayer that long may this continue in the service and for the sake of our dear country.
NDIS is a project, an annual event, jointly organized by the Nigerian Diaspora Summit Initiative (NDSI), a company incorporated in Nigeria and Limited by Guaranty and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria whose mandate is to facilitate engagement between Nigerians in Diaspora and the home country. It was launched in 2018 as a platform for facilitating Diaspora engagement and effective participation in the local economic activity.
OVERVIEW OF SUMMIT FOCUS AND OBJECTIVES
• The mission of NDIS is to generate unprecedented traffic to Nigeria as the country is a fertile ground and ready for business.
• The specific aim of the summit is to demonstrate that targeting the Diaspora is a highly effective and sustainable strategy for attracting inward investment into the emerging diversified Nigerian economy and that NDIS has become the main annual event of its kind.
• The summit offers a platform where Diaspora investors can interact directly with potential sponsors, partners, collaborators and government agencies, for mutual benefit.
BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATING IN OR SPONSORING #NDIS2022
• Expose your brand to a global market
• Heighten your brand profile
• Widen your contacts network
• Showcase your products and services at a face to face forum with potential partners, sponsors and the relevant government officials
• Meet key decision makers and industry influencers
• Generate new leads
• Scale your business
• To kick-start NDIS2020, the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Hon Dr Abike Dabiri-Erewa OON will address the media on Wednesday 2nd November at 1pm at the Commission’s conference room in Abuja.
• For further details concerning any aspect of the summit, please visit www.ndisng.com; for other related enquiries, please contact:
• Mr Abdur-Rahman Adekunle Balogun
(NIDCOM) 08033198077
• Mr Kachi Okezie
(NDSI) 08130147013 (WhatsApp).
