Otti’s Developmental Template Dwarfs Previous Administration’s Efforts in Abia As AIIP Records Direct Investment Inflows in Record Time

The Abia Industrial and Innovation Park (AIIP), has announced that it has recorded a massive subscription of spaces for industrial and residential undertakings from major local and foreign investors barely two months after its inauguration.

Engr Chinedu Onyeizu, the chief executive officer, announced this in Abuja recently while briefing journalists on developments in the business estate that increased traffic in the acquisition of subscription forms by major investors from within and outside Nigeria, which has surpassed the company’s expectation.

Onyeizu said, “Just within two months of official take-off, we are delighted to announce that AIIP has recorded a massive subscription of spaces in our park at Owaza, Abia State. This is a testament that what the previous administration could not achieve in seven years, the administration of His Excellency, Dr Alex Otti, has achieved in less than two months.”

Giving a breakdown of companies that have so far committed to investing in the park, Onyeizu disclosed that an indigenous oil and gas company, HSI Energy Resources Limited, in collaboration with its technical partners VFuels LLC, an oil and gas servicing and design company based in Houston, United States, has concluded plans to build a world-class modular refinery in the park.

Similarly, Total Energies Limited, he has indicated interest in acquiring a large expanse of land for her newly-established Total Energies Renewable Energy Production Company Limited.

Furthermore, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), a Federal parastatal under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources headed by Mr. Simbi Wabote, is also finalizing plans to build an industrial skills acquisition centre in the park.

Onyeizu further disclosed that a Chinese company, China Overseas Engineering Group Ltd, would be making an on-the-spot assessment tour of the site in the next couple of weeks, adding that a number of manufacturing companies have indicated interest to acquire spaces in the park.

Friday, 24th of November, 2023, MTN’s technical team moved into the site to start the preliminary survey for fiber optics laying across the industrial park. The AIIP helmsman said that construction work on the site has been slated for second quarter of 2024 and assured that AIIP would usher in accelerated development of Abia State in record time, even as he said that an estimated 2500 direct and indirect jobs would be created when the park is fully operationalized.

It would be recalled that on Saturday, 30th September, 2023, Governor Alex Otti performed the ground-breaking ceremony of AIIP. In his address at the ceremony, Otti said that AIIP was different from similar ideas in the past that ultimately did not see the light of day because his administration comes with a new assurance: in the spirit of the New Abia, adding that things would be different this time, as all that is promised would be delivered and no party shall be short-changed

Speaking further, Otti said, “Our vision is clear and our goal direct: we want to responsibly harness the abundant oil and gas reserves within Ukwa for the economic development of the communities within the state and the regions connected to this project location. In his words, Governor Otti said, “The agenda is to build a connected system that offers the advantage of economies of scale to businesses that would be sited here, taking advantage of a systematic network that offers endless enterprise opportunities, residential comfort, robust infrastructure, outlets for leisure and recreation and chains of other benefits that cannot be obtained in any other location in all of West Africa.”