The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on Thursday in Abuja inaugurated a “Centre of Excellence” for the financial appraisal of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with Comfar Lite software.

NIPC Executive Secretary, Ms Yewande Sadiku said that Comfar Lite software was a core element of training and coaching aimed at assisting Nigerian entrepreneurs in presenting bankable projects for better access to financing.

The project was carried out in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), which conducted training of 21 NIPC members of staff on the software.

Sadiku explained: “Comfar Lite is a state-of-the art investment project analysis tool that through its interactive and intuitive modules, and allows even less experienced entrepreneurs to present their business ideas.

“The Comfar Lite interface will guide users through various analysis steps. It can be used to scale-up enterprises and should lead to job creation in local communities.”

She also said the software would allow fast appraisal of investment project proposals before moving to fully-fledged feasibility analysis.

Sadiku said the objective was to profile MSMEs in readiness for investors.

“Instead of telling investors that we have lots of opportunities in Nigeria, we can actually share with them a profile of those opportunities and a brief description from a financial perspective of the profile of the business.

“So, it is easy to shorten the time between wanting to invest and actually finding a qualifying investment opportunity,” she further said.

Sadiku explained that the commission would soon begin the implementation of the ease-of-doing business initiative in the states.

She said this was because a lot of the investment opportunities that came into the country were mostly domiciled in the states.

According to her, the more ready the states were to receive investors, the better prepared they were for investments.

Also speaking, Mr Stanislaw Pigon, a lecturer and Senior Adviser at UNIDO, said the centre would serve as an advisor to the states and help them realise the potential of the MSMEs in their states.

He said it would also help to promote investments in Nigeria, “especially at the state level as most of the businesses are actually domiciled there’’.

NIPC was established in 1995 to encourage, promote and coordinate investments in Nigeria. (NAN)