SAFAR 25 1431 A.H.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2010.
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4 countries under-study OSIC-- NIPC scribe
Alhaji Mustafa Bello, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), says four countries have under-studied the commission's One-Stop Investment Centre (OSIC) with a view to setting up the model.
The countries are Ghana, the Gambia, Zambia and Sao Tome and Principe.
Bello told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja last weekend that because of the success of the centre in addressing the bottlenecks of business start-ups for both foreign and local investors, other countries had indicated interest to set up the centre in their countries.
``OSIC has certainly been successful because you see other countries coming to say we want to embrace your model.
``The Gambia has sent in a team twice to come to under-study us and a whole Prime Minister of Sao Tome came here with the request that we should assist them to set up,’’ he said.
He said that countries like Ghana and Zambia had also sent delegations to under-study the centre.
Bello said that internally, some states in the country had been asking the commission to help them establish the model.
He said that the number of visits to the centre had increased from an average of 33 per week to 68.
``We have expanded to bring in all the key agencies of government to support investment promotion.
``The number of agencies in the centre is around 18 or 19. But we are ultimately targeting getting about 40 of them.
According to him, the expansion will depend on the budget and a matching fund.
He said that about six to seven agencies would be added to the centre, depending on the budget.
Bello said that an agency such as the Ministry of Interior had been giving the commission some cause for concern.
He frowned at reports that the commission was competing with the ministry in its core functions such as expatriate quotas and work permits.
He attributed this to the lack of understanding of what OSIC was about, saying that constant changing of permanent secretaries in the Ministry of Interior did not help matters.
