Industrial park to create 1m jobs across Nigeria – Expert
By Dorcas Jonah
An industry expert, Adil Kurt, has advocated the establishment of industrial parks across each state of the federation to create about 40,000 direct employment opportunities on completion.
Kurt, Managing Director of Zeberced Group, told newsmen on a tour of the Abuja Industrial Park and other facilities in the FCT, that the parks would go a long way to boost the construction sector.
He said when such facility was fully operational, it had the capacity to significantly deplete the unemployment market in Nigeria.
He said indirect employment opportunities from a single industrial park could gainfully engage over 120,000 people as they carried out their various related businesses in the building industry.
According to him, if each state develops a park of such immense benefit with 120,000 persons gainfully employed in the industry, the 36 states will absorb over a million persons.
“Partnership between the federal and state governments will be important. There is a need for deliberate investment in industrial parks across the country so that it can take millions of Nigerians off the unemployment market.
“The desire of the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu and the respective governors to urgently
boost the Nigerian economy can be achieved by developing the construction-sector through the creation of industrial parks,” he said.
Kurt said if each state created an industrial park, it would bring spiral economic boom.
He said the federal and state governments should not be scared to invest in developing industrial parks as it had the capacity to generate employment and boost the economy of such a state at a sustainable level.
Kurt said the Abuja industrial park, built by Zeberced group, would host 120 shops that would be available to service the building industry and galvanise value addition to building materials that could boost the economy.
“The Abuja industrial park, when completed, will create about 40,000 direct employment but here in Nigeria, I believe, it would need more.
“Indirect jobs can be easily calculated, if for example and conservatively, each of these business concerns generates three or four persons, it will translate to over 200,000 population of gainfully employed persons.
“This is just one; imagine where each state government established one in their states, the impact will be huge, Kurt said.
He said Nigeria was blessed with all the materials it needed for construction of any kind but could only be realised through value addition and offer investment opportunities to government and private entities to develop.
Kurt said Nigeria could not grow when it relied on other countries for about 95 per cent import of finished products.
He said such products could be produced and processed, thereby creating the needed employment for its citizens and improve on the quality of life of her people.
Kurt who took newsmen round the industrial park and quarry sites, said Nigeria could boast of the largest quarry sites in Africa.
He said this was because its team of investors believed in the enormity of the country’s capacity to feed its building sector with all the materials required to build the infrastructure to drive development.
He said the direction of the administration for concrete roads should provoke states and even local governments to establish various industrial parks to accelerate the desired development of the country.
“You know this will significantly improve the population of gainfully employed persons in the economy and positively impact on those lives.
“We are craving the indulgence of the federal and the state governments to ensure that at least each state should have one such industrial park.
”It is important to diversify industry all over the country, not only in selected areas like Abuja or Lagos; no, it should be all over the country,” he said.
The Managing Director of Zeberced said he was aware that there could be challenges in setting up a park but the determination of the government and other private initiatives to boost the economy, required deliberate efforts for sustainable development.
“Of course, we have challenges, but the government must push. It is about sustainable development.
“It will serve the construction sector covering cement and stones, which are the critical materials for constructions.
“From here we make blocks of all kinds, erect houses, build roads etc.
“There is a huge potential in Nigeria’s construction sector which we have seen.
“This is a developing country and we need a lot of infrastructure to be put in place for the growth of the raw materials to accelerate development of quarry business which requires the production of aggregates for various structural design in Nigeria.
“The two materials in the construction sector are cement and the other one is stone, so we chose stone and we are processing this by adding value to the raw hill.
“For instance, in our country, you cannot even see granite but here, everywhere is granite, It forms a strong material to build the infrastructure, like roads which I mentioned earlier and it remains one of the best materials,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Idris Abdulrahman
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