Ondo, only South West state without foreign direct investment in 2021

Ondo State is the only state in the South West without a Foreign Direct Investment, Western Post reports.

This was contained in a recent National Capital Importation report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the report, Lagos tops the states with the highest FDI in the South West and in the country with $5.8bn.

Lagos is followed by Osun in the South West with FDI of $29.92m, ranking number three in the country.

Oyo State attracted $2m FDI to place third in the South West ahead of Ogun and Ekiti states that attracted $1.06m and $0.5m FDI respectively.

It was the second year in a row that Ondo failed to attract any FDI after also retuning a zero figure in 2020.

The last time the state attracted any FDI was April 2019, when the state attracted $26,000 in FDI.

Upon assumption of office in February 2016, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu stated that he was going to make the state the investment hub in the country.

The governor established the Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA) to drive investments in the state.

The agency has, as its mission, “To make Ondo state the investment hub; a first-choice investment destination in Nigeria for domestic and international investors, donor nations and organizations” as its vision and “To actively facilitate, promote, manage and support domestic investment, foreign direct investment, foreign portfolio investment and grant investments to help nurture new and foster existing industries for social and economic development of Ondo State'”

Speaking at the inauguration of the board of ONDIPA in October 2018, Akeredolu said the state would no longer rely on federal allocations with the mineral resources available. He harped on the advantage Ondo has, with the largest bitumen deposit in the country and second-longest defined coastline.

He also announced that Nigeria’s first company for bitumen exploration and processing would start operation in the state in 2018.

“We are the largest producer of cocoa in Nigeria. We are the largest producer of cassava in Nigeria. We have the largest deposit of limestone in Nigeria; let me inform this gathering that Ondo has the largest deposit of bitumen in Africa and second in the world.

“I want to use this opportunity to announce to this gathering that the first company for Bitumen Exploration and Processing in Nigeria will commence operation in our state before the middle of 2018.

“We are the largest producer of oil palm and cashew nut in South West. We have dedicated 150,000 hectares of land to boost cocoa, oil palm and cassava in Ondo State. We have major cash crops; maize, rice, soya beans, citrus, plantain; coffee, cowpea; we have the highest load of granite in South west. We have large rubber plantations in Ondo. We have oil and gas; we are the 4th largest producer of oil and gas in Nigeria, we can use gas to power electricity.

“We are also the hub of tourism. The Smoking Hills and golf resort at Ilaramokin is the largest in Nigeria and the third largest in Africa. The longest hill on the continent of Africa is here. Ebomi Lake Tourist Centre is here. The International Culture and Event Centre (DOME) where we are hosting this event is the biggest in South West.

“The popular Igbo Olodumare is in my town at Okeigbo and to the glory of God, the largest palace in Africa, the Olowo palace domicile here in our state. From Lagos to Akure and Akure to Lagos now take 25 minutes by air.

“We now have Air Peace flying our once moribund airport every day. Overland Airline has increased the frequency of its flight from Akure to Abuja to three times daily. I am sure many of you fly Air Peace to Akure today. So why can’t you come do business here?

“Furthermore, to ensure that inter-state movement is made easy, Ondo State just signed a memorandum of understanding with Niger/Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for the construction of 45km Araromi-Epe road to be completed before the end of 2018,” Akeredolu said in 2018.

The state has also signed many Memoranda of Understanding with a view of attracting investments to the state.

WesternPost however noticed that many of the MoUs have failed to materialise.

Part of the MoUs signed by the state government include the Araromi-Epe road, the MoU with WeWood to revive that state’s afforestation project, the MoU with Crown Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd for the construction and management of a $500 million modular refinery and the MoU with a German company, Horn Glass Industries, to resuscitate Oluwa Glass.

Others are MoU with Medicus International, a Germany-based organisation to construct a $1.1bn Sunshine Medical City and another MoU with the Private Office of his Highness, Sheikh Dalmook Al Maktoum, who is a member of the Dubai ruling family to build a deep-sea port in Ilaje.

The Akeredolu-led government also signed an MoU with Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute mandated to conduct research in agriculture, food and agro-based industries, while an MoU was signed with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to establish a biofuel plant in Okeluse. The state government signed another MoU with two agric firms for the construction of a powderised egg factory in Emure Ile.

Speaking with WesternPost on Wednesday, ONDIPA Director of Investment Management and Business Development, Femi Akarakiri, said the figures released by the NBS as relating to Ondo State was not correct.

According to Akarakiri, the state attracted four investments in 2021. He however said the state could not attract any investment in 2020 because of COVID-19 which ravaged the world resulting in lockdown.

“We don’t know how they got their information, but we dispute that because that does not represent Ondo at all. Because last year alone we got four foreign investments, we just quickly did the rough now, though we are getting the details to know the amount, but we had four investments that came in last year, 2021. We are trying to put the figures together to know how much they were. We don’t think they talked to people within the state before they came up with their report.

“2020 was a COVID year if you remember that, that was a lockdown year completely. So, we are not going to worry ourselves completely, but for 2021, we had four major investments that came into the state,” Akarakiri told WesternPost.

On the investments that came in to the state, Akarakiri said: “We had LaRuta Malaysia rice project. We are going to have a rice plantation on 2000 hectares along with the processing plant. We also had the Ellah Lakes, they are into cassava and oil palm. We gave them 5000 hectares of land for oil palm plantation.

“Then, we had Tropics Farm on 2500 hectares of land, again oil palm plantation and actually cocoa as well. There is also Oscer Trade, and they are going to go into multi produce farming, cocoa, cassava and tomato.”