Is Onitsha road industrial area going into extinction?

…As 90% of the factories have closed down

The Onitsha road industrial layout at Irete Owerri West Local Government Area, Imo State may soon become a thing of history if urgent intervention works are not carried out to halt the speedy fleeing of industrialists and hazards allegedly caused by users of the burrow pit sited in the area.

This is as over 90percent of the industries which used to operate in the area have closed down and thousands of workers who used to earn their living from there and paid their PAY AS YOU Earn (PAYE) taxes have joined the labour market.

The Onitsha road industrial area which has about 250 industrial plots though some are bigger than others, housed over 100 companies, which were producing at optimal capacity during the glorious days of the late Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe administration, but as we write, not less than 10 companies are working even at less than half of their installed capacity, BDSUNDAY investigations reveal.

“Governor Rochas Okorocha had promised to industrialise Imo State by building factories and create jobs for the people of the state, during his second term electioneering campaign, a policy apart from his free education policy that helped him to win but now the factories are nowhere to be seen and the environmental condition of the industrial area is driving away industrialists from the state,” Jombo Nkwezema Opara told BDSUNDAY.

Nkemakolam Uwakwe, a professional who spoke to BDSUNDAY in his office, said that even though successive military and civilian administrations had abandoned the Onitsha road industrial area built by the late Sam Mbakwe, Okorocha administration which said that job creation was its cardinal policy would be disappointing Imolites if it fails to listen to the cry of the organised private sector (OPS), in the state and revamp the area.

“The state is losing a lot of revenues that could have accrued to its coffers; Okorocha will endear himself to the people if he revamps the area,” Uwakwe said.

According to him, “The burrow pit located in that industrial area is causing a lot of havoc to the industrialists operating in the area because the only main road to it has been destroyed by heavy vehicles, tippers excavating sand and plying that road.”

“The governor may relocate the burrow pit or reconstruct and asphalt that road to save the remaining industrialists in the estate”, a senior lawyer who craved anonymity said.

Charles Okeke, a former chairman of Orsu Local Government Area and a telecommunication guru, stated that if the governor means well in terms of industrialization, he should visit the industrial estate as the place is very suitable for industries in the state.

Okeke, who spoke through a telephone, said that “what the governor needs to do is to open the internal access roads that are already there and if he sees there are people who were not originally allocated lands there and are not industrialists, he could revoke their land and allocate them to potential industrialists in the state.

“The place is well-spaced for industries and is strategically located for any finished products to move to other towns of Aba, Onitsha, Port-Harcourt etc. He would be making a mockery of industry, industry, factory, job, job if he does not revamp the place.”