Waltersmith, UNIDO, UNECA sign technical support agreement for development of industrial park

Waltersmith Petroman Oil Company Limited, a Nigerian independent integrated energy company and operator of the Ibigwe Field within OML 16, has announced the signing of a Technical Support Agreement (TSA) with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) for the development of an Energy Innovation Park following UNIDO’S collaborative partnership with Waltersmith.

The TSA represents the terms and conditions that will guide the development and actualisation of Waltersmith’s Industrial Park, which will also be situated in Ibigwe – the company’s commercial hub and location of its recently commissioned 5,000b pd modular refinery.

The industrial park, when constructed will be the first of its kind in Nigeria, is expected to attract petrochemical, pharmaceutical, plastics, research and other light manufacturing companies that feed primarily off the hydrocarbon value chain. In order to achieve this, Waltersmith intends to invest heavily in electricity and world-class industrial park infrastructure and power in order for manufacturing companies to co-locate in Ibigwe and have direct access to their raw materials from its refinery and petrochemical activities.

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Speaking on the significance of the signature ceremony and the industrial park development, Abdul razaqisa, chairman waltersmith Group, said: “This signing ceremony essentially flags off the industrial park development and we are excited about the technical support UNIDO and UNECA are willing to provide to Waltersmith as this will help us attract several companies to the parking area. Our goal is to create an industrial cluster in Ibigwe and help reduce manufacturing costs, position the South-eastern region as a major manufacturing hub and take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement which the Nigerian Government has currently signed on.”

In a similar vein, Jean Bakole, UNIDO Representative to ECOWAS & Director Nigeria Regional Office Hub, while reiterating UNIDO’S commitment to assist in operationalizing Waltersmith’s Industrial Park said: “UNIDO will gladly work with all key partners to support Waltersmith to actualise the Industrial Park which we know will become a success story for the development of other industrial parks in the very near future and we pledge the organisation’s unwavering support to Nigeria’s economic diversification agenda through promotion and acceleration of inclusive and sustainable industrial is at ion of the country .”