FAU Nigeria Bureau

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The federal government has gave clarifications on businesses that would qualify to enjoy pioneer status under the additional 27 new industries and products approved by the Executive Council of the Federation.  FAU will take advantage of this in developing its business in Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, NIPC, Yewande Sadiku,  said that companies that would enjoy pioneer status were only those that ventured to invest in industries that were either non-existent at all, or the country did not have sufficient presence for its economic development.

Ms. Sadiku holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Benin and an MBA from University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She started her banking career with Nigeria International Bank Ltd., where she worked from 1992 to 1994.

Before her appointment as Executive Secretary/CEO of NIPC, Ms. Yewade Sadiku was the Executive Director of Corporate and Transactional Banking at Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc. She has also served as Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited, Head of Finance Department of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc. (formerly IBTC Chartered Bank Plc.). She was responsible for the execution of debt and equity issues, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and a financial advisory assignment handled by IBTC Chartered Bank Plc. and was also responsible for its packaging, analysis and execution of a variety of assignments.

She is in regular contact with the Securities & Exchange Commission, The Nigerian Stock Exchange and other regulatory authorities as well as several of Nigeria’s leading corporations and multinationals at the senior management levels. A member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Ms. Sadiku once served as the chairperson of the Rules and Regulations sub-Committee of SEC’s Capital Market Committee.

An experienced investment banker, she is also of the Atedo Peterside School of Investment Banking. As the Head, Investment Banking of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, she produced the screen adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s best-selling novel, Half of a Yellow Sun.

“Pioneer status does not relate to only new industries or entrants to the economy,” Ms. Sadiku noted. “Under the new arrangement, what the law provides for is different from the ordinary English definition of pioneer, but the legal definition.

While the English definition refers to a business first venture into a new area of operation, the Executive Secretary explained that the legal definition was where the country did not even have an industry at all, or did not have sufficient presence for its economic development.

In trying to encourage the establishment or growth of the industry and the economy, she said government decided to look at its priority sectors in the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan, NIRP, and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, by promoting the 27 industries and products in the approved status document.

Ms. Sadiku said businesses that have existed for several years in a particular sector may not enjoy the pioneer status, except such companies ventured into a brand-new line of business covered under the list of 27 new industries and products.

“For instances, big companies, like JUMIA, who have established themselves in the e-commerce business sector as well as those in the music industry would not enjoy tax exemption by the government under the new regime.

“The pioneer status actually applies to those involved in their first year of business or operations. Clearly those older than that would not benefit,” she explained. She objective of government, she pointed out, was to attract more people to invest in those sectors that have no investments to contribute to the growth of the economy. Only people that have agreed to venture into those sectors that would enjoy the pioneer status, and not those that have been there for more than a year.  An existing company will only benefit if they are starting a new line of business included in the list of 27.”

The list of 27 industries and products published by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in Abuja included:

1. mining and processing of coal;
2. processing and preservation of meat/poultry and production of meat/poultry products;
3. manufacture of starches and starch products;
4. processing of cocoa;
5. manufacture of animal feeds;
6. tanning and dressing of leather, manufacture of leather footwear, luggage and handbags;
7. manufacture of household and personal hygiene paper products;
8. manufacture of paints, vanishes and printing ink;
9. manufacture of plastic products (builders’ plastic ware) and moulds;
10. manufacture of batteries and accumulators;
11. manufacture of steam generators;
12. manufacture of railway locomotives, wagons and rolling stock;
13. manufacture of metal-forming machinery and machine tools;
14. manufacture of machinery for metallurgy;
15. manufacture of machinery for food and beverage processing;
16. manufacture of machinery for textile, apparel and leather production;
17. manufacture of machinery for paper paperboard production;
18. manufacture of plastics and rubber machinery;
19. waste treatment;
20. disposal and material recovery;
21. e-commerce services;
22. software development and publishing;
23. motion picture, video and television programme production, distribution, exhibition and photography;
24. music production, publishing and distribution;
25. real estate investment vehicles under the Investments and Securities Act;
26. mortgage backed securities under the Investments and Securities Act, and;
27. business process outsourcing.