Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari is to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the proposed Enyimba Economic City (EEC) project in Abia state, at the end of the first quarter of 2022, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has said....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Ikpeazu, who met with President Buhari Thursday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, explained that the purpose of the meeting was to brief the President on the developments on the EEC project and inform him of the next level plans for the mega project.
The Eyimba Economic City project, is a proposed free-trade zone with an independent business registry, labour law, banking regulations and more.
It will sit on over 9,500 hectares of land in the oil producing communities of Abia State, between Aba and Port Harcourt.
Located along Aba- Port Harcourt Highway, the city has major arterial, intercity roads connections. It is near existing sea- ports (Onne and PortHacourt) and the proposed Akwa Ibom Deep Sea Port.
It has proximity to airports in Owerri, PortHacourt and Uyo, and has functional gas pipelines and boarder. It is also along the national rail line of Port Harcourt-Maiduguri.
The project is privately-led, but stakeholders include the local community, the state government (Abia State), and the federal government.
Onyebuchi Ememanka, chief press secretary to Abia state Governor, stated that the Governor in company of Darl Uzu, chief executive of the Enyimba Economic City project, thanked the President for Federal Government’s support to the project, particularly the 20 percent stake taken up by the Federal Government in the project and the consistent approvals given by relevant federal authorities to important applications made on behalf of the project after fulfilling all legal and other relevant requirements.
The Abia state Governor further informed Mr. President that all the international financial institutions involved in the project, from the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank to the Afrexim Bank have all fulfilled their obligations to the project.
According to him, “With this development, all investors in the project are expected to crystallize their investments, while the formal ground breaking of the Enyimba Economic City project is expected to be performed by the President between the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second quarter of 2022.
