Investor Presentaiton

3.6 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF NIPC For decades, the Government of Nigeria had vigorously pursued economic policies aimed at liberalizing and promoting competition and investments in the Nigerian economy. To reaffirm its commitment to market-led economy, the government has enacted and continued to update relevant legal instruments that hitherto contained provisions inhibiting competition and investment in Nigeria. Furthermore appropriate incentives are continuously being put in place to encourage and promote private investments. The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) was established under the NIPC Act NO. 16 of 1995, as a successor to the Industrial Development Coordination Committee (IDCC). The NIPC law repealed the IDDC Decree NO 36 of 1989 as well as the Nigerian Enterprise Promotion Decree of 1989. The IDDC was to serve as a coordinating center that would consider and grant all industry related approvals under one roof thus saving unwary prospective investors the frustrating merry-go-rounds associated with obtaining investment approvals from different approving centres. However, the IDCC was bedeviled by daunting problems, which militated against its optimal performance. They included lack of quorum at meetings, inadequate funding and alleged intrusion into its statutory functions by other ministries. It was as a result of these problems that NIPC was established to take-over the responsibilities of approvals among other investment promotion functions handled by the erstwhile IDCC. The major objective of government for establishing NIPC is to adequately address those problems that foreign investors associate with the Nigerian Indigenization Decree of 1977. The decree restricted or even denied foreign equity participation in some category of business activities in the country. The NIPC removed these barriers thereby opening the economy to full foreign participation except in those enterprises concerned with the production of arms and other prohibitive items. Act Furthermore, foreign investors can own 100% of the equity of any enterprise in the country. Also, foreign firms or individuals are now permitted by law to purchase the shares of domestic firms, provided such purchase is effected

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