Organizers say participants with bright pitches can win as much as $10, 000
Mark Okoye, the Managing Director- MD, of Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency – ANSIPPA, on Friday during a media roundtable at the ANSIPPA office in Awka, announced that Anambra Investment Summit 2023 would hold in three months time, precisely on September 7 and 8, 2023. During the summit he said, participants with bright pitches can win as much as $10, 000, among other venture capital sponsorship for great ideas, designed to build a new set of economically empowered youths, in Anambra state. This announcement was a highpoint in about an hour-long session throughout which the ANSIPPA MD explained what the Agency has been doing, its big plans, challenges, prospects and the determination of the government under Governor Soludo, to ensure that Anambra State becomes a “livable and prosperous homeland,” which is the driving philosophy of the Soludo’s administration.
The MD of ANSIPPA Mark Okoye, who was flanked by Augusta Nnadi, the strategy and communications lead for the Agency and Chinedu Onyike the secretary of the Agency’s board, addressed a select media practitioners in Anambra State, in a major public interface with relevant government agency like ANSIPPA, to share insights on the policy thrusts of the Soludo’s government, the pillars, agenda of the government, as well as other important indices of development relating to Anambra State.
According to Mr. Okoye, “Anambra has the lowest unemployment rate in Nigeria, at 13%.” More on the positives, Anambra is 7th in Nigeria, in the ease of doing business ranking, also informally, the gross domestic product of Anambra State stands at about N5.2 trillion, Mark Okoye said. However, service sector ranks lowest among other spheres such as agriculture and industry, at 19%, 53% and 23% in that order. However, Okoye explained that the government is already working to lay a solid foundation for a robust service industry in Anambra state. “We are already working on fiber optics which will provide solid and reliable internet service for a robust service industry in Anambra state, [effectively] turning the state into a modern service industry driven state”, the ANSIPPA MD said.
As a government, Mark Okoye explained that the Soludo’s administration has a systematized five point agenda through which the administration hopes to transform the state from a “departure lounge, to the destination.” These five points agenda are; security, economic transformation, human capital, governance and environment.
Given the level of work and demand on ANSIPPA, the MD also informed that the Agency would soon become Anambra Development and Investment Corporation – ADIC, in a matter of months. This change is to enable government, through the expanded agency, to conceptualize the entire processes of development in various sectors of Anambra’s economy and investment, in a much more organized and sustainable way.
Mr. Mark Okoye noted that the new Anambra State Government House will be ready in about the next twelve to eighteen months. He further shared the administration’s drive to ensure cluster based development through ADIC so that projects are strategically cited in clusters which will open up the state to endless opportunities and coordinated development.
Some of the achievements of ANSIPPA since inception in 2014 according to Mark Okoye includes; Awka Millennium City; a high value world class estate with fiber optics and standard supply sources well laid out, located in “the new Awka” in the area considered as “the new economic corridor to the state”. Lynden Farm, and Onitsha Shopping Mall. In all, ANSIPPA owns not less than between 10% and 15% stake in these establishments, Okoye said.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
