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| Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State |
From Patrick Egwu, Enugu
Brands/Business
Abia State
Government has begun discussions with a Chinese firm to establish an industrial
city in Abia State to produce shoes, garments, electronics, electrical
fittings, computers, mobile phones, among other items.
The deal worth $1.5
billion, would create 10,000 jobs.
In addition, the firm
will train 60 Abians on the firm’s activities at Huajian Group headquarters in
Dongguan, Guangzhou.
Another 140 will also
be mobilized within months to go for other specialized training totaling 200.
They would be supervisors and line managers of different Huajian Group
activities in Abia State.
A team of experts from
Huajian Group visited Abia, Sunday, to work with a team from government to
commence documentation, company registration, obtaining necessary permits and
land preparation for ground-breaking of the project within the shortest
possible time.
The industrial city
would target 80 per cent export to meet existing Huajian International orders
and 20 per cent for the Nigerian market.
The move is also in
line with the new campaign of the state government, tagged, “Make-in-Aba”,
aimed at attracting manufacturing firms from all over the world to manufacture
in Aba.
Governor,
Okezie Ikpeazu, revealed that Abia will soon become the hub of manufacturing in
Africa, especially in shoes and garments production, which was part of the fall
out of his engagements at the just concluded Governors Investment Forum in
China.
Speaking to
newsmen at the periodic briefing of his administration, Ikpeazu said the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) to be signed in the next five weeks by his administration with Huajian
Shoe Industry, will among other things, attract a $1.5 billion shoe factory
investment to Aba, which would in turn create about 20,000-30,000 direct and
indirect jobs, as well as improve the expertise of Abia shoe manufacturers.
The governor stated
that the state’s promotion campaign for Made-in-Aba brands has now moved to
Make-in- Aba. In line with that, the government is opening its doors for
innovators, business owners and manufacturers to come and invest in the state
under a business-friendly environment.
“We must open our space
for people to come and invest in our state. Therefore, our campaign for
Made-in- Aba has now graduated to Make-in-Aba. We are now calling people to
come and make their products in Aba”, Ikpeazu said.
According to him, 65
to 70 per cent of the output from the new shoe factory would be for export to
meet already established market thereby indirectly promoting the Made-in-Aba
campaign.
The governor disclosed
that while in China he visited the company that produces the machines for
automated shoe production to have a first-hand knowledge of the production,
packaging and handling processes.
According to him, this
was to enable Abia manufacturers acquire their own automated shoe production
lines that will support improved output and global standardization.
He explained that the
rationale behind the visit was to allow manufacturers access to the state, move
the campaign of “Made in Aba” to “Make in Aba” and allow investors to reside
and make their products in the state, create more employment opportunities for teeming
qualified Abians, scale up the standard of shoe making in our environment and
bring in new machines that will be manned by citizens of the state.
He expressed the
readiness of the state to compete favourably with China, noting that he desires
that Abia becomes front runner in manufacturing and commerce in Africa. The
governor called on Abians to brace up and be part of making things happen in
the state by putting on their thinking cap.
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