With optimism and a vast economic potentials of Gombe State, the state Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, yesterday flagged off the maiden Gombe Investment Summit tagged ‘GoInvest 2022’, reeling out numerous economic potentials of the state.
At the opening ceremony of the three day conference with participants from Nigeria and outside the country, Governor Inuwa Yahaya reeled out the huge potentials of Gombe even as he flaunted its credentials as the Best in the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria and the Safest and most peaceful State in North East.
The Governor observed that the place of Gombe in commerce, industry and tourism is well established, as throughout history, the State has continued to capture the imagination of traders, business caravans and enterprising wanderers from within and outside Nigeria.
“Our position is boosted by Gombe’s strategic location at the center of the north-east subregion and proximity to neighboring countries around the Lake Chad basin, enterprising and peace-loving population, unity in diversity, comparative advantage in agriculture, commerce, and abundance of natural resource like limestone, gypsum, uranium, coal, crude oil, kaolin, etc. Gombe also boast of great potentials in irrigation and hydropower generation through the Dadin Kowa, Balanga and Cham dams”.
“In the same vein, we also realized that in order to put our state on the path of sustainable progress and long-term prosperity, we must strategically invest in both human capital and infrastructural development”.
With the theme, “Industrialization: the Pathway to Innovation, Transformation and Development of Gombe” Governor Inuwa said, in addition to its numerous empowerment programs for SMEs, “we are partnering with local and international stakeholders to provide cheap and affordable financing for our entrepreneurs”.
He observe that human capital development will enable his administration to equip the teeming youths with the requisite skills, knowledge and expertise to succeed in the rapidly changing digital world.
“To this end, we are working to leverage on digital skills and opportunities to develop Gombe into a regional ICT hub in order to harness the creative energies of our youths. On the other hand, solid and resilient infrastructure is being put in place to serve as catalyst for industrialization and growth, unlock opportunities and deliver sustainable prosperity to the people. This is evident in our numerous interventions in the education and health sectors through the constructions and upgrade of schools and hospitals, construction of rural and urban roads under the Network 11-100 project, the Gombe Mega Motor Park project, the Gombe Regional Water Expansion Scheme, and most importantly, the Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park.
The 1000-hectare mega industrial facility is strategically located along the linking point of transport and energy infrastructure. It is expected to help consolidate Gombe’s position as the industrial hub of the North-east subregion”.
He noted that administration that businesses can only thrive in an environment that fosters innovation, collaboration, risk reduction, sound regulatory framework, and sustainable wealth creation.
“To this end, we undertook major reforms in order to create a favorable investment climate. As a first step, we revamped the Gombe Internal Revenue Service. Through the deployment of technology-driven and innovative solutions, we are able to transform it into a robust vehicle for revenue growth and optimization. We also revived the Gombe State Investment and Property Development Company Limited to serve as a one-stop shop for all investment-related issues in order to facilitate ease of doing business. In the same vein, in order to streamline and revolutionize land administration, we created the Gombe Geographic Information System (GOGIS) and provided it with the resources and authority to carry out its mandate effectively. It is the culmination of these efforts and reforms (as well as many others) that propelled us to number 1 position in terms of ease of doing business in Nigeria.’’
“It is worthy of note that providing an enabling environment for businesses is more than just enacting business reforms. For them to make the desired impacts, such reforms must succeed in reducing the duration, cost and procedure of starting and operating a business. It is to this end that we developed and implemented policies and programs geared towards simplifying the registration of businesses, harmonizing taxation, improving the efficiency of local officials, stamping out corruption, maintaining security of lives and property, and building the capacity of judicial officers so as to improve the quality of the judicial system”.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya remarked that his administration is also taking bold steps towards addressing the three major issues affecting business creation and growth which are security, access to finance, and electricity.
Inuwa Yahaya said before taking over as Governor, he was mindful of the enormity of the tasks and challenges before hence his decision to mandate a team to carry out a NEEDS assessment study.
“The study, which covered all our 114 wards and over 420 communities, would later serve as the foundation for our 10-year development plan known as the Development Agenda for Gombe State (DEVAGOM). DEVAGOM which was built around 5 pillars of economic development, infrastructure, sustainable environment, governance and institutional capacity. All these pillars are fully aligned with the sustainable development goals as set out by the United Nations”
