The Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas (NI-CO) public body, a not-for-profit consulting organisation which was previously part of the Department for the Economy and run by Invest NI, has been formally wound up.
According to a listing in today’s issue of business information and credit data publication Stubbs Gazette, NI-CO was wound up on September 9 as a members’ voluntary liquidation, with James Derek Neill of KPMG as the liquidator.
NI-CO was created in 1992 to manage international development projects on behalf of government departments and other public bodies, and EU projects traditionally accounted for a significant proportion of its revenues.
But in the wake of Brexit, the body was unable to bid for contracts under the 2021-27 EU Multi-Finance Framework Programme, and its revenues effectively dried up.
A review of its operations begun in April 2023 and NI-CO’s board concluded two months later that it could no longer be considered a going concern.
The organisation closed permanently at the end of March, with 18 jobs being lost.
NI-CO had offered a range of services, including training, institutional capacity building and consultancy across health, policing & justice, governing, and agriculture.
Among the final project it was involved in was the recruitment of senior roles in British overseas territories, including a chief operating officer for the government of Tristan Da Cunha, a tiny active volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean.
NI-CO’s office building at Landmark House in Belfast’s Gasworks estate went on the market last December with an asking price of £1.6 million.
But the building remains unsold, and according to property agent Lisney’s website, the 8,579 sq ft block, is now on offer for £1,450,000.
