By Peter Salami
President Bola Tinubu’s investment and enterprise drive has received a fresh boost with two projects worth a combined $812 million moving forward in Nigeria’s gas and small-business sectors, opening new opportunities for jobs, local businesses, and industrial growth.
The developments comprise the $800 million Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Ima Gas Project and the $12 million Abuja Centre for Entrepreneurship being funded by the Republic of Korea through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
The bigger of the two, the Ima project, represents the unlocking of a gas resource discovered in 1973 but left undeveloped for more than five decades.
Located offshore in OMLs 112 and 117, the project is being developed by Nigerian-owned AMNI International in partnership with TotalEnergies and is expected to produce about 300 million standard cubic feet of gas daily at peak.
For the Tinubu administration, the FID represents another significant outcome of reforms introduced to revive investment in an oil and gas industry that had suffered years of underinvestment.
Since taking office, Tinubu has introduced measures aimed at improving fiscal competitiveness, reducing project costs, and shortening contracting timelines to make previously stranded oil and gas investments commercially viable.
Ima is now the fourth major gas project to reach FID under the administration, following Iseni, Ubeta, and HI.
The project also carries a significant Nigerian-content component, with Nigerian financial institutions arranging 77 per cent of its financing and about 60 per cent of the workforce expected to come from host communities, including Bonny, Finima, and Andoni in Rivers State.
Tinubu said the development demonstrated the importance of converting Nigeria’s enormous natural-resource potential into productive investments capable of creating jobs, generating revenues, and supporting businesses.
“For more than fifty years, the gas beneath Ima remained a resource with enormous potential, but potential alone does not create jobs, finance businesses, or improve the lives of our people,” the President said.
He said the FID demonstrated what could be achieved by providing investors with a competitive, predictable, and enabling environment.
Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, said the project illustrated what the administration’s reforms were designed to achieve — moving resources from beneath the ground into commercially viable investments that employ Nigerians and stimulate economic activity.
Beyond the energy sector, the administration is also targeting entrepreneurs and small businesses with the $12 million Abuja Centre for Entrepreneurship at the SMEDAN Industrial Development Centre in Idu, Abuja.
Funded by South Korea through KOICA in partnership with the Federal Government, SMEDAN, and the United Nations Development Programme, the centre will provide workspaces, digital facilities, incubation, training, and other enterprise support.
It initially targets 500 entrepreneurs, 400 start-ups, and 1,500 micro, small, and medium enterprises.
Of the $12 million investment, $5.9 million will finance construction, while $6.1 million will go into equipment and programmes designed to help entrepreneurs and businesses grow.
Its reach is expected to extend beyond Abuja to Kaduna, Jos, Keffi, Lafia, Minna, Makurdi and Lokoja, strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem across a substantial part of Northern Nigeria.
The centre has also been designed to accommodate women and persons with disabilities, with accessible facilities and crèche services for women with young children.
Tinubu said strengthening MSMEs remained central to his administration’s drive to expand employment, incomes and economic opportunities because small businesses employ Nigerians, support families and sustain economic activity in communities.
“We want more Nigerians to be able to start businesses, grow them and employ others,” the President said.
Taken together, the two investments span opposite ends of the economy — an $800 million energy development and a $12 million entrepreneurship hub — but reinforce the administration’s drive to attract investment, unlock stranded resources and create opportunities for Nigerian businesses and workers.
“Our economy will be stronger when more Nigerian businesses can start, survive and grow,” Tinubu said.
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