Returning from the Yuletide break, the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has resumed his effort at accomplishing his administration’s vision of making Anambra State the first choice investment destination and a hub for industrialization and commercial activities with the recent attraction of an automobile assembly plant and a natural gas distribution plant to the state.
The two investors are Richbon Nigeria Limited which plans to establish a $40m vehicle assembly plant in the state and Falcon Corporation Limited which intends to set up a natural gas distribution project valued at $100m that will pipe natural gas to the many industrial clusters in the state.
The proposed Richbon assembly plant will be located in the industrial cluster at Oba, Idemili Local Government Area and will on completion assemble various types of automobiles including light and heavy duty trucks, buses, construction and agricultural equipment among others.
On the other hand, Falcon Corporation’s $100m investment is pointedly targeted at scaling up power supply to the various industrial clusters in order to shore up their capacity utilization and bring down production cost to stimulate a significant growth in the real sector.
Penning a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the chief executives of the two companies in Awka at the weekend, Governor Obiano explained that the two investors were a great addition to the growing list of wise businessmen and women who had discovered the huge economic potentials of Anambra State and have moved in to take advantage of the new investor-friendly climate that his administration had created in the state.
According to him, the two entrepreneurial giants had heeded the call by the state government on path-breaking indigenes who had contributed significantly to the economic growth of other states across the country and beyond to come back home and play a role in building the New Anambra State.
Governor Obiano also noted that the projects were in line with his administration’s Four Pillars of Development which was conceived to open up the state for investment, create employment, stimulate domestic growth, enhance the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), open fresh revenue windows and increase the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
The governor further revealed that his administration had intensified efforts to double the volume of current investment inflow to the state and enjoined all stakeholders to support his on-going efforts to transform Anambra State.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of Richbon, Chief Cajetan Muonagolu explained that he was encouraged to site the proposed automobile assembly plant in Anambra State because of the friendly investment climate that governor and his team had created as well as Governor Obiano’s avowed commitment to change the state for good.
Chief Muonagolu further revealed that Anambra would be the first to host such an ultramodern assembly plant in Africa pointing out that Richbon was also determined to invest heavily in Agriculture.
Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of Falcon Corporation, Prof. Joe Ezeigbo explained that the arrival of his company in the state would divvy up growth in the industrial sector as it would supply relatively cheap fuel to power industrial machines and boost capacity utilization thereby leading to a realistic and sustainable industrial growth in the domestic economy.
Prof. Ezeigbo extolled Governor Obiano’s bold and pragmatic approach to governance recalling that he had made several attempts in the past to establish his business in the state but all his efforts came to naught.
The industrialist observed that Anambra had enough potential to become the industrial hub of West Africa if Obiano’s bold efforts are sustained and regretted that the high volume of gas Nigeria loses annually to gas flaring was enough to provide stable power supply to the West African sub region.
In his own remarks, the Managing Director of Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA), Mr. Joe Billy Ekwunife expressed optimism that more investors would be encouraged to consider Anambra State as the best choice for investment following the recent influx of investors to the state.
He also expressed the hope that with the growing investments in the state more jobs would be created to meet the bloated employment market while more revenue windows would emerge to shore up the state’s Internally Generated Revenue.
