Business owners want Imo govt to addopt PPP for economic development

Business owners, farners and miners under the auspices of Owerri Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (OCCIMA) have called on both foreign and local investors to leverage on the investment opportunities in Imo State to invest, asking Imo State Government to adopt Public-Private Partnership for speedy economic growth and development

Speaking on their behalf, Anthony Amadi, a Lawyer and President of the Chamber in Owerri, Imo State Capital, at the weekend, urged the Igbo business class, including traders who were displaced from Computer Village in Lagos and other parts of the Country to take up 6,450 modern shops proposed for the Imo Computer Hub, asking them to come home and invest in the State.

He said that OCCIMA was working very hard to encourage Imo people to show interest in digitalisation and digital economy of the State, adding: “we have made efforts in the past to bring our brothers who were displaced n Lagos to come back home and begin to find shops in the Alaba International Market, along Aba Road Naze, Owerri, and we are not relenting in our efforts”.

Anthony Amadi, who spoke at the Imo State Ministry of Trade and Investment, urged the Imo State Government to collaborate with OCCIMA to mount programmes that would help to attract investors, especially the Igbo computer people who were displaced from computer village in Lagos to invest in Imo State.

Amadi, the Chamber President, stated that Owerri, the Capital of the State, occupies a lofty and strategic location among the major towns in the Southeast and South-south geopolitical regions.

He noted that because of its centrality and proximity to other cities for business, it could take only few hours drive for business men and women from Aba, Umuahia, Onitsha, Enugu Port Harcourt, Elele or Ahoada to reach.

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And to fast-track economic development of the State, OCCIMA President, urged the Imo State House of Assembly to enact a law making it compulsory for businesses and trade groups in Imo State to register with the Owerri Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture as it is the apex leader for the organised private sector in the State.

Meanwhile , Amadi has urged the Imo State Government to adopt the public private partnership (PPP) approach, this he said, would enhance speedy development in the State.

According to him, the PPP will help the Government to also overcome some factors affecting the speedy economic development of the State, and also enable the Government to create a more conducive environment for investments in the State.

He urged the State Government to consider the PPP initiative, and that if adopted, the State could stand in a position to gain hugely, socio-economically.

On food security strategies, he noted that the State Government could help farmers in the State to focus more on the production and cultivation of the major staple foods, like cassava, maize, rice, among others, asking Government for effective strategy that would drive mechanised agricultural development and food security, in order to ensure increased food affordability, availability and acceptability in the State.