Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, July 02, 2004.
Abuja investment firm to facilitate economic
development
By Sanya Adejokun
Senior Correspondent, Abuja
At his ministerial press briefing on April 29, this
year, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai, declared
economic development as one of the six priorities of his administration. The
Abuja Investment and Property Development Company (AIPDC) is the body the authorities are
depending on to achieve this goal.
“On assumption of office, we identified the
Abuja Investment and Property Development Company (AIPDC) as a company that can
be used to achieve some of our policy objectives and reforms, such as the
Public private Partnership (PPP), private sector investment through various
schemes and accessing the capital market for infrastructure development. We
have, therefore, restructured the company to effectively cope with these
objectives and brought in a world-class management team. So far, the AIPDC has
been able to study and completely repackage the new markets schemes initially
conceived by the MFCT, which have stalled since October 2003. New sketch
designs have been prepared to ensure transparent building processes are
undertaken,” el-Rufai declared. The new man at the helm of affairs at
AIPDC is Mallam Tijani Abdulahi.
Before joining the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE)
in August 2000 as director of operations, Abdulahi, an accountant, also has
Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from Bayero University, Kano. He
was executive director, First Interstate Merchant Bank Limited, among other
senior and executive positions he held in the private sector. In February this
year, he got a leave of absence from the BPE to serve as the managing director
of AIPDC.
