Nigeria, India trade volume to hit $20bn over Enyimba Economic City development
By Kingsley Okoye
Mr Vishal Jhadav, Managing Director, Crescendo Worldwide, an Indian multi-sectorial FDI consulting firm, says Enyimba Economic City (ECC) is expected to increase Nigeria and India’s trade volume to 20 billion dollars.
Jhadav said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, on the sideline of a dinner organised in his honour by Enyimba Economic Development Company (EEDC), the developers of ECC.
ECC, which is situated on a 9,803 hectares greenfield special economic zone in Abia State, is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project of Crown Realties Plc, Abia Government and the Federal Government.
The project is being executed under the Made In Nigeria for Export (MINE) programme of the Federal Government and has currently won validation as the single largest urban development project in Africa.
EEC is a recipient of the first prize of the Global New Cities Business Plan Contest of the Chartered Cities Institute in Washington DC in 2019, having been adjudged with capacity to transform economy of Nigeria.
“Today, India and Nigeria do about 11 billion dollars volume of trade and it is fluctuating between 11 billion dollars and 15 billion dollars.
“So with this new Economic City, we are working towards increasing this trade between the two countries to 20 billion dollars.
“And we are proud to say that there are more than 76 Indian companies, who have registered their interest, setting up their manufacturing facilities inside Enyimba and these companies are from diverse sectors.
“We are speaking about companies from manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, automobile, aerospace and medical devices.
“All mixed sizes of companies, coming together and setting up their factories there, and this will not just be for the Nigerian market but for the whole of African market, driving it from Nigeria.
“Our role as Enyimba Economic City and Chriscendo World Wide, is that we want to drive this growth, this vision, so that this 76 Indian companies, when they will be functional, and set up their factories, they will create about 2000 to 3000 new jobs.
“They will have about 400 million dollars of trade and investments; they will extend to the whole of African continent market from Nigeria.”
Jhadav said the promoters of ECC were looking towards using the city as a place and a gateway to do business with a fantastic African and a world class infrastructure.
EEC is being positioned as the place and hub to do business in Africa, with world class infrastructure, including steady power, intermodal logistics hub with destination inland port connected to two seaports by rail.
He said the EEC would provide unique investment opportunities for Indian companies and other businesses around the world.
Mr Darl Uzu, the private sector lead for the project also told NAN that he was committed to the project which started seven years ago.
Uzu, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Crown Realties Plc, said EEC had the capacity to transform the economy of Nigeria with impacts across Africa and the globe, noting that ECC had growth sectors not only in manufacturing.
“It is a self-sustaining live, work and play modern city with growth sectors in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, entertainment, education, innovation and technology hub, commercial, lifestyle, residential and aviation.”
Uzu said in addition to India, EECDC had other FDI consultants manning other territories.
He said Brilliance Co. Limited in China had raised 84 prospective companies and Commodity Development Initiative (CDI) in Nigeria with over 26 companies.
Uzu said that $288.7 million required for the first phase of the project had been raised both in equity and debt.
“African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) syndicated the debt of $201.7 million which received its Board Approval on Nov. 14, 2023 and currently the legal documentation of the loan is ongoing.
“EECDC also intervened on improving connectivity in the project catchment area by leading a Consortium that included CCECC Nigeria Limited, Escher Silverman Global, UK, Insta-Toll of South Africa and Afrinvest (WA) Limited to win the concessions of the two main highways.
The highways connect Enugu-Port Harcourt (200km) and Onitsha–Owerri-Aba (161km) for a value added concessioning that includes design, construction, financing, maintenance, operation, management and tolling of the highways under the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) of the Federal Government.”
According to him, Jhadav, a key partner in the EEC project, is in Nigeria to witness the commissioning of Geometric Aba IPP, 188MW plant.
Geometric Power is the official power partner of EEC and the two projects are financed by Afreximbank which had signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 90MW of Geometric’s electricity for first phase of the EEC. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Idris Abdulrahman
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