Nigeria: Oil And Gas Free Trade Zone Attracts $16.6bn Foreign Investments In 20 Years

The Oil and Gas Free Trade Zones Authority has attracted the sum of $16.6bn foreign direct investment into the economy within a 20-year period spanning 2001 to 2020.

During the same period, the Authority also attracted the sum of N255.33bn local investments.

The Managing Director of the FTZ, Okon Umana, disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday.

He added that between January and May this year, the trade zone generated N9.41bn as revenue.

A breakdown of the revenue revealed that N2.1bn was generated in January, while February, March, April and May had N1.45bn, N4.39bn, N1bn and N453.98m respectively.

Speaking on the developmental impact of the agency, he said that within the last few years, there had been great improvement in the operations of the free zones.

He said this was achieved through dedicated leadership as well as the commitment and exceptional quality of members of staff of the authority.

This, he stated, had resulted in the huge interests by both local and foreign investors in the zones.

OGFZA stated that currently, there were about N6.1bn investments that were being expected to materialise in the Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone.

He said, “To grow investment also meant looking at the structures within our zones because as I said, you can only attract Foreign Direct Investment if you are globally competitive.

“We took a number of steps; we reviewed our standard of operation, we came out with timeline for delivery of our services.

“For example, in the past, we did not have a specific timeline for renewal of licence or to reissue new licences or even to process cargos.

“We came up with specific timelines – we say for example that we will take only 48 hours to clear cargos, if the cargos where consigned in Free Zones.

“It will take seven days to renew licence when all the requirements have been met and it will take 21 days to issue a new licence and when all the requirements have been met.”

In terms of job creation, the OGFZA boss stated that the investments have been able to unlock many direct and indirect jobs thereby empowering many Nigerians.

He said between 2005 and 2015, the authority had created 40,508 direct jobs and indirect jobs with conservative estimate at about 160,000.

He said, “These incentives are applied for activities within zones meaning that when they move items from the zone to any other place, all the taxes will be applied.”

Umana added that between 2005 and 2015, the authority created 40,508 direct jobs with indirect jobs conservatively estimated at 160,000.

– Punch