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Managing Partner, Africa PPP Advisory Consortium AP3, Gori Olusina Daniel presents Gudi Industrial hub feasibility study report to Governor Abdullahi Sule, right
By our correspondent
The consultant hired to undertake feasibility study on the viability of establishing the Gudi Industrial Hub, Africa PPP Advisory Consortium AP3, has said another four years under the administration of Nasarawa State Governor-elect, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, will guarantee stability for the free trade zone to take off.
Gori Olusina Daniel, Managing Partner, Africa PPP Advisory Consortium AP3, made this known while presenting the final feasibility report on the proposed Gudi Industrial Hub to Engineer Sule, at the Governor’s Lodge, in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Daniel emphasized that, with his reelection for another four years, investors, especially the African Development Bank, will be assured of stability under the Engineer Sule administration.
He said the proposed Gudi Industrial Hub have broder economic benefits, with the project estimated to cost N58bn and projected to yield over a trillion naira while providing employment for over 30, 000 people under the first phase.
Daniel added that, already the African Development Bank has committed USD 450m, for the creation of free trade zones, with Nasarawa State scheduled to benefit from the second phase of the project.
The consultant explained that, after due assessment across six local government areas of the state on where to site the hub, Gudi was chosen because of its comparative advantage in terms of critical infrastructure such as closeness to the international airport in Abuja, link to the Eastern line that will be revitalized, as well as being accessible from the Northwest, Northeast and North central parts of the country.
“Why Gudi? When we started, we were considering about six local government areas. After the site assessment we had to look at this against our experience of what makes an industrial park work,” Daniel said.
He however assured that even though the hub is sited in Gudi, the economic benefits translates across the entire state and beyond.
“Based on what we have seen, this project is as good if not better than some of the projects already in phase one,” the consultant assured.
He however requested that, apart from conducting the feasibility study, his firm should be allowed to handle some of the contracts under the project.
In his response, Nasarawa State Governor-elect, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, assured that the Gudi Industrial Hub is very viable, stessing that his administration will able to achieve a lot in the next four years.
He was confident that the ADB will approve the financing for the project with the completion of the feasibility study, which was part of the requirement for accessing the funds.
Engineer Sule said the project is long overdue, especially that 22 states in the country have already established their free trade zones.
“The advantages of Nasarawa State is much higher than so many states. So far in Nigeria, there are 22 states that already have their free trade zones.
“In addition to this, we already have two beverages bottling companies that have shown amount of interest looking for land and if we tell them already there is a free trade zone that they can do this, I think they will jump into it immediately,” he stated.
Engineer Sule appreciated the consultant for going beyond preparing the feasibility but by getting it to the point of attracting Foreign Direct Investment to the state, when the firm expressed interest in executing some of the contracts for the Gudi Industrial Hub.
In a chat with journalists shortly after the event, Ibrahim Abdullahi, MD/CEO, Nasarawa Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), said, under the project, the state government is expecting to build an agro-industrial hub that has different components, a special agro-processing zone, light manufacturing, a hub for small and medium enterprise.
“The whole essence of the Gudi Industrial Hub is to provide the enabling infrastructure for commercial activities within the Northern region and the country at large to take place. The Gudi project has been carefully curated and the economic impact is immense. We are looking at this to be a major hub for agro-processing for the country. We are talking about crops in which the state has a comparative advantage especially cassava, sesame, rice, maize and other staple crops.
“The impact and the potentials of this Gudi project is immense and Gudi and Nasarawa State is also geographically advantaged right within the centre of the country, there is access to the national rail, the proposed Eastern line that will be revitalized. We think this will open up a lots of economic activities within this corridor,” he stated.
