Rivers Govt Promises Open Arms To Investors As State Returns To Business 

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA) has unveiled measures to enthrone ease of doing (EoDB) to win back the confidence of the business community.

This was as the Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, has thrown his weight behind the efforts to promote businesses in the state, advising however that businesses still remaining in the state first should be protected before being promoted.

The Director-General of the Agency, Chamberlain Peterside, unveiled the plans at the breakout session of RSIPA at the ongoing 18th Port Harcourt International Trade Fair at the Obi Wali International Cultural Centre in the garden city.

RSIPA, together with top investors and business regulators at both local and national levels thus called for concerted strategies to free the state from what they called ‘Perception Risks’.

Dr. Peterside said the agency was poised to free the state from accumulation of wrong narratives that over the years branded the state as unsafe for business.

He however admitted that many things have gone bad in the past where regulators joined to make the business environment difficult for investors.

Peterside announced that the agency was rather focused on actions, solutions, and results as adopted in the mission statement of the agency’s board. He also said Rivers State is back to business.

He stated, “We are not naive to believe that either by some form of magic we can suddenly turn the fortunes of the state and attract all the investments we desire.

“We are dealing with the perception risk that over several years branded the state as unsafe. We are also faced with the challenges of dealing with the lack of cohesion amongst MDAs, policy inconsistencies, multiple taxation, incessant harassment by miscreants, red tape and delays in obtaining operating permits, high cost of operations and opaque public sector.”

He said the Agency was not there to dwell on challenges but to focus on action, solutions, and results.

Peterside said, “it is about listening to the investors in the field and ensuring that MDAs were carried along, hence the imperative for the setting up of our One-Stop-Centre (OSC).”

He called it the practical game-changer never experienced before in the annals of Rivers State.

Speaking on the plans of the investment promotion agency to materialise, Mr. China advised that an enabling law should replace the Executive Order that established the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency. This, he said, is to insulate the Agency from political instability and remove fear in the minds of investors about its sustainability.

China, regarded as a real estate success strategist, cautioned that protection precedes promotion, thus, businesses in the state desire protection before anything else.

China, who is the CEO of the Housing and Construction Mayor Limited, owners of the Alesa Highlands Sustainable Green Smart City, said that Port Harcourt is like a business empire under lock and key because it is not protecting its own and also not promoting its own enough for investors to come in.

He went ahead to paint the picture of the richness of Rivers State including over 50 cultures and festivals, boat regatta, a blue economy, and others. He recommended measures that would boost economic development in Rivers State.

In his remarks to encourage investors, Joe Johnson, the Rivers State Commissioner for Commerce and Trade, who represented the governor, said the Siminalayi Fubara administration is ready to listen to the business community to see ways of reducing impediments to investments.

He listed the stages of actions being undertaken by Governor Fubara which are listed in the governor’s 37-page blueprint to revive the economy of Rivers State.

Speaking, Dr. Chinyere Nwoga, the chief host and President of the PHCCIMA, called on the state government to look into the menace of parked trucks now turning Trans-Amadi into a risk zone.

She outlined the activities of the PHCCIMA and invited investors and businesses to the Port Harcourt economic hub, saying peace has returned.