Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has assured investors interested in investing in the State of a safe and economically vibrant business environment.
Ikpeazu in his presentation in Guangzhou, China, during the first Nigeria-China Governors Investment Forum, outlined the comparative investment advantages of Abia State to include, location in the middle of seven states with a captive population of more than 20 million people, 17 railway stations, proximity to four airports and home to the largest micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) hub in West Africa.
Ikpeazu urged investors to key into opportunities in the automation of leather and garment products manufacturing processes, airport development, mechanised agriculture, new markets development, modern urban mass transport systems, intra-state railways, industrial clusters and export processing zones.
The Abia governor assured potential investors that the State had set up a One-Stop Shop that guaranteed that they could commence business with land and certificate of occupancy (C of O) availability less than a month after arriving Abia State.
It is heart warming that effort of the Abia State government to improve ease of doing business in the State is yielding fruit. Also heart warming is the fact that these results are coming in less than two years of the life of the present administration in the State.
Foreign investors, especially firms from the United States of America (USA) and China are queuing to invest in Abia.
For instance, Comfort Stephens Global Investments, a big conglomerate, intends to establish shoe and garment manufacturing lines in Aba, the State’s commercial hub.
Also recently, BRJ and Associates of the United States of America have agreed terms with Eastgate Terminal Limited, concessionaires to the Aba Inland Container Depot (ICD) to develop the dry port.
The State Government has also secured $1.5 billion shoe manufacturing deal with Huajian Shoe Industry in Dongguan, Guangzhou, China, for the establishment of a shoe factory in Aba.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu secured the deal during a meeting with Zhang Huarong, group chairman, Huajian Group, in the course of his official visit to China for the 1st Nigeria-China Governors Investment Forum.
The Abia-Huajian Shoe Industrial City will have capacity to produce 5,000 shoes per day and provide about 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Recall also that Abia State government last year, signed an agreement with Eastern Vehicle Assembling Limited (EVAL), to establish a vehicle assembling and manufacturing plant at Osisioma-Ngwa area of Aba, the State’s commercial hub.
With the agreement, EVAL will within the next quarter, set up a flag shop with full complement of servicing, sales, spares and systems.
This will be followed up with the assembling and manufacturing plant to produce 500 cars monthly with over 500 employees on a single shift. But will provide over 2000 jobs indirectly.
Wang Xiang Yin, president, Hawtai Motor Manufacturing Company, Taijin China, joint venture partner of EVAL, has assured the Governor of a very good deal to the advantage of the State and her people.
The success of these investments depends on the availability of constant power supply, which is expected from Geometric Power plant at Osisioma, Aba.
Geometric Power, has already generated power, but waiting for a few distribution bottlenecks within the Aba ring fenced area to commence operation.
The State Government recently visited AfriEximBank to support Geometric Power to resolve the remaining issues and ensure that the firm exercises its license to generate and distribute power to the Aba-ring-fenced area, which is the bedrock and pillar of production activity in the State,
The Aba Integrated Power Project (IPP) has therefore been designed to supply reliable power to industries, commercial businesses, residences and other power off-takers in Aba ring-fenced area, through construction, operation and delivery of electricity from the 140 MW gas fired power plant to all off-takers in phase 1 of the project.
In addition, the construction of over 100km brand new industry-centred distribution lines will ensure the delivery of reliable affordable power supply to several industries and large commercial entities currently poised to expand production capacity when the project is commissioned.
A dedicated 27km gas pipeline has been constructed for the project, which will ensure reliable transportation of gas fuel to the power plant from Shell’s gas gathering center, at Owaza, in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State.
The project’s generation company, GPAL has been licensed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to generate electric power and sell power to non-regulated consumers that are within the Aba ring-fence.
The operation and maintenance contractor for Aba IPP’s generation company, GPAL, is O and M Solutions (OMS).
OMS has extensive experience in the maintenance of similar plants around the world and is working with the EPC contractor G5 of South Africa to ensure completeness and technical soundness of the power plant.
The project’s distribution company, APLE has been licensed by NERC to distribute electricity to regulated customers within the Aba metropolis. APLE’s mission is to build an efficient network to distribute power in Nigeria in line with the Electric Power Sector Reform Act.
Its customers in Aba comprise of regulated small commercial and residential consumers who would receive power through rehabilitated existing distribution lines in the “ring-fenced” network leased by the project’s distribution company from the Government owned utility, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.
The operation and maintenance contractor for Aba IPP’s distribution company, APLE, is National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), USA. NRECA is an experienced electricity distribution company based in Arlington, Virginia, United States of America. NRECA represents more than 900 member cooperatives, serving over 42 million people in 47 States in the USA alone.
NRECA International also provides services in several countries. NRECA will provide the management team for APLE that will be responsible for overseeing the daily operation of the distribution utility in Aba.
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