ABOUT BIC BAUCHI

The Bauchi Investment Corporation Limited (BIC) was established in June, 1977 as a development finance institution that will provide the avenue for stimulating economic growth and development via trade, commerce and industrialization in the state. BIC commenced operations with an initial paid up share capital of N3m which was later raised to N10m in February 1986 and to N500m in 2006 to enable it increase its size and widen its scope of activities. BIC Limited is wholly owned by the Bauchi State Government.

The company was formerly known as Bauchi State Investment & Property Development Company Limited. (BSIPDC). The name was changed to Bauchi Investment Corporation (BIC) in 2006.

BIC is an independent private organization that operates within the guiding principles of Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA. Therefore, the company was created as limited liability entity to make it run within the context of profitability and operate in line with the sound and modern business Best Standard practices distinct from government parastatals.

In line with its business operational mandate, among other things, BIC is charged with the responsibility of pursuits in viable ventures in industry, trade, commerce, agriculture, solid minerals, securities, bonds, real estate/property development, commodity trading, etc.

BIC Limited’s present Challenges

• Fallout of the overall world economic meltdown as a result of diverse negative economic issues that affected the Nigerian economy and specifically its revenue base, Bauchi state could not be an exception hence a clear need to open up and scout for better ways of enhancing internally generated revenue and employment growth.
• Bauchi state given its comparative advantages in some key sectors, especially Agriculture and Solid minerals, if modern mechanize farming and finance for investment in greenfield could easily be accessed would put the State in a competitive advantage and impacting positively on employment generation and economic growth among its pears in Nigeria.
• Skills and education infrastructure requires significant upgrading to ensure that the population has the basis employability skills to exploit the opportunities that will be created through successful investment promotion Cost, availability and reliability of energy; while this is a challenge across Nigeria and represents a major constraint, were it to be addressed in Bauchi state it would place the state in a strong competitive position to attract new manufacturing investment to the State.
• Access to land; although in theory large investors can access land easily, in practice the process is unclear as there is price to be paid. By addressing this issue and ensuring that the process for investors is transparent, reflects best practice and is efficient, it will become easier to attract large-scale investors to theState.
• Even though Bauchi state is a fairly densely populated states in the country with about 1.4m of its people unemployed, underemployed or engaged in low-skilled economic activities (please see Table below),Bauchi still needs large scale investments to harness its key areas ofadvantages

Key success factors for the new Bauchi Investment Corporation Limited

The right people for the job The most important contributor to the success is excellent staff. Factors to consider when creating job descriptions and conducting recruiting exercises for new staff include the characteristics listed below:

• Private sector experience/understanding
• Strong management and leadership skills
• Competitive remuneration scales that may often be above government pay scales
• Operational freedom from normal bureaucratic channels and high-level access to key decision makers
• Key sector knowledge and experience
• Good networks across Federal, State and alternative public sector levels
• Fluent Language skills
• Advanced soft skills (writing, listening, reporting, presenting, negotiating)

Competition strategies

To optimize operational strategy, structure and best practice standards, BIC Limited strives to develop deep business knowledge about her product and key sectors through:

• In-house research capability with strong analytical capabilities that enable analysis of the local product to identify realistic opportunities and benchmarking the location and its factor conditions against competitors
• Focus on specific sectors and development of real knowledge and expertise in these sectors
• Implementing a balanced range of result-oriented activities as opposed to reactive facilitation and generic promotion. Such activities include; research, proactive marketing and outreach, facilitation, aftercare and advocacy

Services Provision

BIC Limited focuses on delivering excellent service through:

• Clear service level agreements and understanding for both internal and external customers. As an example, this could mean that all enquiries are acknowledged within 24 hours of receipt.
• Web presence that offers up to date and relevant information on BIC Limited, the State, its key sectors, recent positive newsitems and a feedback mechanism linked to a customer relationship management system (CRMS).
• A well maintained but simple CRMS that enables measurement of effectiveness of promotional activities and progress in transforming enquiries into operational investments. A clearly identified and well-documented procedures and regulations for creating and operating a business in the State. As an example, for an investor in the agriculture the process and cost of acquiring farmland would be clearly described.