Onne other oil & gas free zones receive $75 billion in investments

The Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), the body overseeing oil and gas free zones in the country has disclosed that Nigeria’s six oil and gas free zones have so far received Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) totalling $75 billion (N14.0 trillion).

According to the OGFZA management led by Umanah Okon Umanah, managing director, a lion’s share of $60 billion (N11.8 trillion) of the investments is domiciled in the Oil and Gas Free Zone (OGFZ), Onne, near Port Harcourt,which is Nigeria’s biggest such zone and the world’s fastest growing one.

Golda Opuine Ukomadu, head Public Affairs of OGFZA , told BusinessDay that oil and  gas free zones under the agency’s regulation are: Onne, Ikpokiri, Warri, Lagos Eko Support and Brass oil and gas free zones.

The Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) is regulating other free zones like Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), Snake Island, Olokola, though the law says they should have transferred the companies under the OGFZA.

Ukomadu also said midstream discharge of cargoes by some port terminal operators is outlawed; adding that the act has been proscribed because of the security implication; “that is why the law says cargoes destined for a terminal must first come to Customer’s ports.”

She informed that the OGFZA was looking for investments in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry because of crude oil and gas; noting that the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone had been the most successful in Nigeria because of the consistency of government policy and ingenuity brought into management of free zones.

She further observed that past and present managements of OGFZA, especially the present management under the Managing Director, Umanah Okon Umanah, have ensured that there are no policy somersaults, so that investors do not lose confidence in them.

Ukomadu said there are close to 200 investors in the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone; and they are hoping to replicate this success story in other free zones in the country.

“There is now good expatriate quota in the free zones. As the years go by, they are reducing the expatriate quota. Investors can repatriate their profits to instil confidence in other investors,” she said.

She further stated that most of what is seen at the OGFZ, Onne are private sector driven-investments.

“Our MD, Umanah has guaranteed that investors will operate in a secure environment,” she said; adding that companies operating in the free zones were exempted from companies’ tax and withholding tax (WHT).

She further noted that the major challenge was the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which often comes into the oil and  gas free zones, to ask for withholding tax (WHT).

BEN EGUZOZIE, Port Harcourt & GODWIN EGBA, Onne