By Ahmed Tahir Ajobe
The ongoing investment drive by the Nasarawa State government is yielding results with about 10 companies injecting $466 million in various sectors of its economy in 2024.
The feat is outside the $767 million worth of investments promised by nine companies in form of declarations of intent or memorandums of understanding among others within the period.
According the 2024 report of the Nasarawa Investment and Development Agency (NASIDA) obtained by our correspondent, the state recorded cumulatively $1.2 billion worth of investment inflow last year. This includes investment announcements and actualised.
Among the companies that invested in the state last year are Juiling Lithium Industry Limited, with a $250, 000,000 stake in the state.
Juiling is currently building a lithium processing company in Nasarawa local government area of the state.
Others include Future Granary Project, RANARY, $200,000,000; Husk Power Systems, $7,000,000; Nasarawa Technology Village, $2,187,500; Asgard Mineral Processing Limited, $1,500,000; Nasarawa Technology Village (NTV) phase2, $1,250,000; Nasarawa Peninsular, $1,200,000; Greenville LNG Compressed Natural Gas, $1,200,000; Karu Retail and Recreational Mal, $1,000,000; and Gudale Development, $437,500 respectively.
The report said the invested areas are lithium mining and processing, fish farming, general agriculture, real estate, gas, off-grid solar power and sesame plant among others.
It stated that 3, 740 persons were gainfully employed in various vocations as a result of the investments within the year.
Top among the companies that indicated interest to invest in the state, it was learnt, are the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) which has agreed to invest $500,000,000 in the energy sector in Toto local government area of the state.
Also, Infinitum Energy Group of USA has made a bid to invest $180,000,000 in 25 – 30 MW Waste-to-Energy and Solar Renewable Power in the state.
Others are Cenpower Generation Limited, 50MW Hydropower generation plant, $100,000,000 Power; EMK Group Turkiye, Agricultural Growth and Sustainable Food Value Chain, $28,000,000 Agriculture; Advent Integrated Limited, On-campus Accommodation, $11,040,000.00; Farmatrac Tractor, manufacturing plant, $10,000,000; Uke Gold Gold, mining $10,000,000; EL – DARL Farms, oil palm plantation, processing and storage facility, $6,250,000 Agriculture, and Khalif Mining, lithium and rubidium processing plant, $2,000,000 respectively.
The proposed investments, it was gathered, are expected to create 3, 940 formal and informal jobs.
Our correspondent reports that some of the big names that have established industries in the state include Olam Nigeria Ltd, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Azama Nigeria Ltd, Flour Mills Nigeria, Bionas Group, ABS Blueprint Consortium, Prime Global, Beacon Energy, Green Sahara, Diamond Stripes, Barlow & Barrow International Nigeria Ltd, Green and Energy Limited have equally established strong presence in the state.
In May, 2024 President Bola Tinubu through Senator President, Godswill Akpabio commissioned a $100 million lithium processing plant in Nasarawa local government area of the state.
The plant which was built by Avatar Energy has capacity for 4000 metic tons of lithium per day as well as provide 4000 jobs.
