THE Minister for Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, has explained how the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government intends to create 1.5 million direct jobs and between 7.5 to 30 million indirect jobs via its robust industrialisation policy.
Enelamah was speaking at the 11th edition of the Bola Tinubu colloquium which held in Abuja on Thursday. According to the minister, the industrialisation plan is part of FG’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which is the main economic programme of the present administration.
The plan, Enelamah explained, is going to include new greenfield projects as well as the upscaling of some brown-field projects, which refers to already-existing projects. He said government intends to “move to the next level”. Examples of such brown-field projects are the industrial parks in Calabar and Kano respectively.
“We have established a platform company that would house these initiatives that we’re talking about – called the Nigeria Special Economic Zones Investment Company or Nigeria SEZCO,” Enelamah said.
On the greenfield projects which are already springing up across various regions of the country, the minister mentioned the Enyimba Economic City, an industrial city in Abia State, South East Nigeria, which, when completed, would be a major economic hub in the region.
The Enyimba City occupies “9,500 hectares of land … the equivalent of six average sized cities,” Enelamah explained.
“The master planning, feasibility studies of the phase one of the project is already concluded, the partners that would build it are already in place (three companies from South Africa, UAE and China), and it has a dedicated Independent Power Plan that will serve it uninterrupted power).
“The phase one alone would create at least 625,000 jobs and the implementation is well underway.
“The next one is the Lekki modern industrial park (which would be set on) 1000 hectares of land located in the Lekki Free Zone. This land is meant to be for world-class, export-oriented manufacturing, from things like cotton to agro-processing to other areas, and we are looking at the northeast corridor of the Lekki Free Zone.
“The third example is the Funtua Cotton Cluster in Katsina (State). Funtua has the largest aggregation of cotton gins in Nigeria and it’s the traditional home of cotton gins.
“The cluster will aggregate cotton from over 800,000 cotton farmers in Northern Nigeria, and become the largest integrated cotton ginning, spinning and weaving complex in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It will re-establish the cotton value chain, from seed cotton to finished fabric, and provide feedstock for domestic and export-oriented garment manufacturing.”
Enalama stated that these projects are just one example of the reforms that the Buhari government has undertaken in creating “a Nigeria of high-quality manufacturing and service jobs, growth, opportunity and shared prosperity and a better life for millions of our people.”
The Bola Tinubu colloquium is an annual event to mark the birthday of the former Lagos State governor who turned 67 years old on Thursday.