The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority on Wednesday said it had attracted about $9.4bn (N1.5tn) worth of investment to the country through the operation of free trade zones and was targeting investment volume of at least $15bn (N2.5tn) in the next five years.
The Managing Director, NEPZA, Mr. Olugbenga Kuye, said this during a chat with journalists in Abuja.
Speaking about his agenda for the agency, he said the NEPZA management team had put in place strategies that would help to increase the volume of investment to at least $15bn within the next five years.
Kuye expressed optimism that through the free trade zones, the country’s development objectives would be realised in no distant time.
The NEPZA boss said his dream was to transform the agency from its regulatory role to an industrialisation agency.
The managing director explained that out of the 25 free zones in the country, nine were fully operational, six under construction, four in design stages, while six were largely owned by the states.
He said, “To date, we have $9.4bn investment in all the free zones in Nigeria. This is without the one we just successfully got through General Electric.
“I believe we should be looking at investment in the sector to the tune of $15bn in the next five years.”
In line with the planned industrialisation status, Kuye said the agency had mapped out four key sectors that would form its major focus.
“Specifically, we are focusing on four key sectors such as agriculture, solid mineral, manufacturing, petroleum and petroleum products, and other sectors that have to do with population, like housing.”
He said the agency had already commenced discussion with investors from the Netherlands to come and set up agricultural parks in Nigeria
On his vision for the free zones, Kuye said, “All over the world, free zones are being used as a veritable tool for economic development. Along those lines, we will need to revive the moribund free zones in the country.
“Simultaneously, we are also carrying out audit of the free zones to identify their viability and those that are not working will be closed down.
“The free zone scheme has worked in a lot of places. When the concept started in Nigeria after the UNIDO report, the focus was on manufacturing. Now, the focus is on all the sectors of the Nigerian economy.”