Enugu FTZ Attracts $500 Million FDI, Targets 30,000 Jobs

By Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu

At least 5,000 global manufacturing companies have indicated interest to invest $500 million dollars (N240 billion) as Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the proposed Empower Enugu Free Trade Zone.

The investment groups who are due in Enugu for the ground-breaking ceremony of the FTZ on Thursday are responding to the federal government’s economic diversification programme and the conducive environment provided by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration in Enugu state.

Addressing newsmen at the Government House on Tuesday, the CEO of Empower Free Trade Zone Management Company, Mr. Emeka Eneh, and the Enugu State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Barr. Sam Ogbu Nwobodo, said activities of the industrial clusters hosted in the free trade zone are expected to create over 30,000 jobs.

According to him, the Empower FTZ is a public-private partnership with Enugu State government.

He said it was licensed by the federal government to operate as a free trade zone in December 2015.

It is to offer international and domestic investors the benefits of connecting to business opportunities from the south-eastern cluster, expected to the the second largest economic cluster in the country outside Lagos.