Okezie Ikpeazu’s zeal to change the narrative of Abia state has increased when he led a high powered delegation to the presidential Villa, Abuja to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari for a deal that would create over 600,000 jobs.
Speaking to Vanguard on the project, governor Ikpeazu said: “This city is borne out of a need to recreate Dubai in Abia State. The idea is to create an efficient technology driven digital city for light and heavy manufacturing and we have done all the surveys and we found out that it is the choicest and the best economic city today in Africa. There is none like it because it is 30 minutes away from two sea ports, one is in Abonima and the other one is in Onne. It has a rail line straight from there to Kano. Again, it has gas for energy because that is where we have our gas belt but most importantly, it is close to the highly skilled and energetic Aba manpower.
“So the energy and the skilled manpower that will drive whatever activity in that city is available. We have an anchor company coming in from China, that is coming with more than $20 billion. They are also prepared to underwrite the one hundred and twenty something billion Naira which Geometrics requires to provide electricity. In effect, in Aba will soon become the first city to enjoy uninterrupted power supply in Nigeria. That is our vision and that is our prayer.
“A lot of people expressed worry that I have been to China more times than many people have been around there in their lifetime. It is because they don’t understand; the future of Abia, our tomorrow, is the Enyimba economic city. And we are targeting, first of all a garment factory which will put a stop to our people frequenting China for the raw materials they use for their garment business. So we have it all planned out and it doesn’t take one trip to achieve that. But I am proud to say is that the MoU has been signed between Enyimba economic city and some core investors such that one investor is ready to bring in $20 billion.”
On Friday, December 7, 2018, the President hosted Ikpeazu who led some leaders of the state among whom were former Senate President Adolphus Wabara; Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University; and some Abia State House of Assembly members.
The event witnessed the signing of an agreement between the state government, federal and the private investor on the city.
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