The Bayelsa State Government said it has laid a solid foundation that would encourage more investors to come into the state and invest.
Director General of the Bayelsa State Investment Promotion Agency (BIPA), Patience Ranami-Abah, made the disclosure in Yenagoa, on Wednesday.
She said it was no longer secret that Bayelsa is the most attractive investment destination in the South South region of the country, an effort she attributed to the kind of leadership of Governor Seriake Dickson in the last six years.
She said the government has demonstrated its commitment to providing a business-friendly environment to investors through BIPA, which provides one-stop services to investors.
According to her, the commitment of the government to the ease of doing business has earned excellent dividends, as evidenced by recent and significant indices ranking Bayelsa very highly, not just in the South South, but, also, in the entire country.
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Ranami-Abah said, most recently, Bayelsa has been ranked first among South South states in the World Bank’s 2018 Sub-National Business report released on October 21, 2018, and second among all states in southern Nigeria as a whole.
She said: “Other key indices include figures released by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), showing there is high investor commitment towards projects in Bayelsa State.
“The NIPC figures place Bayelsa State as the second highest beneficiary (with 26 percent commitment in favour of the state) out of $45.74 billion worth of investment commitments made for 42 projects in nine states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), within the first six months of 2018.
“In the same vein, Bayelsa is placed third on the fiscal sustainability index ranking for Nigeria, as indicated in the BudgIT ‘State of States Report 2018’, which looked at the ability of states to meet their recurrent expenditure obligations and their ability to sustainably manage their debt profiles.
“All of these, in addition to Bayelsa’s low crime rate, make us the most attractive investment destination in the South South today. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics ranks Bayelsa as one of the safest states in the entire country, as it accounts for only 1.23 percent of total reported crime cases.”