The Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission’s Executive Secretary is Ms. Yewande Sadiku (NIPC). She discusses key issues that have defined her five-year tenure at NIPC in this interview.
This month marks the end of your first term at NIPC; how has it gone so far?
Because I did not employ anyone during my tenure and did not appoint any external special assistant, all of the work we have done in NIPC over the last five years has been done with the same NIPC staff that I met when I assumed office. The people I met at NIPC are the ones who work closest to me. Because of internal conflicts, there has been some negative coverage of NIPC in the press. But I came here with the mindset that it didn’t matter.
These conflicts existed prior to my arrival. In fact, given what happened to two of my predecessors, it’s a wonder I’ve lasted this long. However, the fact that I was able to work with good people at NIPC provides me with comfort.
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So, one of my proudest achievements is that much of the work we’ve done was not being done before I arrived. I’m extremely proud of NIPC’s improved reputation in terms of governance, compliance, and transparency. When I first started at NIPC, I believe we were ranked 96th in an independent civil society compliance ranking. In 2019, we were ranked second, second in 2020, and I’m not sure where we’ll be ranked in 2021. However, I believe that doing so with the same group of people is unprecedented.
Look at the section on FOI on the NIPC’s website. I challenge you to find another government agency that has that level of transparency, and we update it quarterly. The last time the reports were updated was in June. They should be updated by the end of September, if not sooner.
In terms of advising the government on the direction of investor interest in Nigeria, NIPC can now do so using data rather than anecdotes.
In the last five years, how has the agency’s revenue been generated?
In terms of remittances to the government, we recently published a report indicating that NIPC generated N11.9 billion in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) over the last five and a half years and remitted N5.8 billion to the government. I don’t believe up to N1 billion was remitted to the government in the five years before I joined NIPC.
NIPC did not have an audited account for 2014 when I arrived in November 2016. We had to finish 2014 and 2015 before moving on to 2016, which was the year I started. The 2020 audited account has been completed and published. We don’t have any audited accounts that are past due.
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Is it true that the staff union went on strike over welfare? Has this been addressed?
If some of the staff union’s agitations are any indication, NIPC’s welfare is in poor shape. Since my arrival at NIPC, the welfare improvements have been almost unprecedented in any government agency, in my opinion. We were able to persuade the governing council to approve a staff housing loan scheme to assist employees in purchasing their own homes because we made more money than NIPC had ever made in 2018.
When I first joined NIPC, they had a N200 million housing scheme in place that was not funded. So it was approved for N200 million, but no money was involved. We set aside N1.2 billion for NIPC personnel. N1.1 billion of the N1.2 billion has already been distributed to employees. We set aside N500 million for a post-service benefit scheme to help them transition from work to unemployment.
What challenges did you face at NIPC?
Industrial unrest has a long history at NIPC. That was a problem I had to deal with throughout my time there. You can’t do this without the cooperation of all levels of government, including the federal, state, executive, legislature, and judiciary. A relatively difficult economic backdrop makes it difficult to work and generate investment. As a result, having numerous records of this investment would have been beneficial.
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That hasn’t gone as well for me as I would have liked. However, it is against the difficult backdrop against which we worked. There were also issues with the governing council because of court cases that had been filed. These are factual statements. Court cases brought by a member of the governing council slowed NIPC’s progress, including one that barred the company from spending its IGR for five months in 2020. And getting an organization like this, especially one with such a long history of labor relations, on a path of reform – which is normally difficult – has been difficult. I am the second executive secretary to have served at NIPC for more than three years. I’ll be only the second executive secretary to finish a term. NIPC was founded in 1997. That reveals something.
What will ensure NIPC’s long-term industrial harmony?
Discipline is a crucial component. Employees and employers have rights and obligations in every organization, but your CEO and management have certain prerogatives that allow them to manage and lead the organization as they see fit. There are some advantages to holding that position. There will always be conflict if you don’t respect the fact that the person has those privileges.
