Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed has called on Nigerians in the Diaspora to take opportunity of the current transformation agenda and invest in Nigeria, particularly the Federal Capital Territory. He made the call while making a presentation to delegates attending the 2014 conference of the Nigerians in Diaspora which took place at the Embassy Suites, Columbus, Ohio, US at the weekend. The Minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of FCT, Engr. John Chukwu urged the Nigerian Diasporans to think more about what they can contribute to the development of Nigeria and less about what they could get from it. He said the implementation thrust of the Transformation Agenda in FCT is to open up the Territory to unfettered private capital-driven development. He said it was this thrust that made the FCT Administration to introduce the Land Swap programme as a catalysts for accelerated development. According to him, the private sector would be incentivized to provide site and services within the districts. He added that Government’s emphasis would be to provide the policy, legal regulatory environment for seamless private sector participation in the development of the districts. The benchmark, he added is to open up by providing modern infrastructure in at least 10 new districts within five years.
Development is based on contractual agreement with 15 private investors on the basis of the Land-for-Infrastructure Swap Framework. The total land area for the development is 4,283.2 hectares and projected to require a minimum of $3.8bn of private sector capital. The distance of this area is averagely 20 minutes from the City centre and 15 minutes from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. [eap_ad_1] He said the benefit analysis of the investment initiatives of the FCT Administration include creation of more than 300,000 jobs within the plan period; inflow of N1 trillion investment to the FCT; reduction of housing deficit by 20%; reduction of cost of rent/lease by 15%; increased funding to human capital development and enhanced security of lives and properties20% of schooling population. The theme of the 2014 conference is, “Nigeria’s Transformation Agenda and Leadership Accountability: The Role of Nigerians in Diaspora.”
Other speakers at the conference included Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari who spoke on ‘Nigeria’s Diplomatic Strategies in Relation to the Transformation Agenda’; Professor Vince Anigbogu of the Institute for National Transformation, Abuja who delivered the keynote address; Professor Ilesanmi Adesida, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost, University of Illinois who spoke on “How Nigerians in the Diaspora can Transfer their intellectual property/capital for the Transformation of Nigeria into a Technological Superpower”, Dr. Harry Alford, President/CEO, National Black Chamber of Commerce, and Professor Kelechi Kalu, Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs, Ohio State University whose lecture was on “Safety and Security and Nigerian Transformation Agenda” and others.
Over 250 delegates attended the conference among them the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Adefuye, Professor Hauwa Ibrahim of the Havard, Architect Bernard Lot, the Director of Public Building of the Federal Capital Development Authority, Professor Chris Igodan of Ohio State University, Dr. Kate Okpaleke, Engineer Mike Akpan and many others.
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