Listen to this articleOgun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has asked foreign businesses to stake their resources in the state’s Special Economic Processing Zone, which he described as the destination of choice.
The governor made the appeal as a guest on CNBC Africa at the weekend on the sidelines of the Intra-African Trade Fair organised by Afreximbank, in Cairo, Egypt.
He said Ogun State has put everything in place to host any business venture.
Abiodun said the state has the required infrastructure, including accessibility, access to power, and a youthful and educated population to make it investor-friendly.
He said, “We like to refer to ourselves as the Gateway State. We are the gateway to Nigeria’s prosperity. We are the industrial capital of Nigeria. By all accounts, we have well over 5,000 industries. We are the number one in non-oil revenue in Nigeria because we have large mineral deposits, particularly limestone.
“That explains why we have Lafarge, Dangote, and many other cement factories. The biggest cement factory in Nigeria is in Ogun State.
“Now, why are we here (Cairo)? We are here to attract more investors to our state, particularly as we pride ourselves as having the required infrastructure, be it road, rail, or air. We have a new airport, unarguably one of the best airports in Nigeria.
“Our airport is situated in our Special Economic Processing Zone. The zone is being supported by Afreximbank and being operated and constructed by a private sector player called Arise LLP.
“Today, we want people to know about the zone, to come and establish processing concerns and factories in that zone, referencing the 5,000 other industrial activities that exist in Ogun State,” he said.
The governor listed some of the companies in the state to include Lafarge, Nestle, Cadbury, May &Baker, Unilever, and Olam Flours, among others.
He said companies coming to invest in the state would take advantage of its vast agro produce like rubber, cassava, which Ogun is the number one producer in the world, palm oil, cashew, cocoa, cotton, eggs and poultry.
“We are trying to attract investors to this processing zone, more so because we have gas, which allows them to access power. So, you are sure that your major cost of production, which could be power in most instances, is already mitigated.
“And I believe that we’ve managed to convince a lot of our listeners that Ogun State, the industrial capital of Nigeria, the education capital of Nigeria with reserve of youthful population is ready to receive you and as a government, we’ve provided a lot of reforms and policy initiatives to further increase our rating on the ease of doing business index,” he added.