A’Ibom Partners Foreign Investors on Affordable Housing, Agric Processing Plants

Okon Bassey in Uyo

Akwa Ibom State Government is to engage foreign firms, including British African Business Alliance Limited and PJ-IC International, to provide affordable medium density housing scheme for civil servants in the state.

The strategic engagement will also enhance the fortune of farmers in the state with the establishment of processing lines as standby off-takers of farm produce.

This was part of the resolution reached at a meeting between the state government and the two foreign investors held at the Government House in Uyo.

The state Governor, Udom Emmanuel, assured them that despite his few months to winding down of his administration, he would continue to woo multinationals to explore the vast Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) opportunities and relatively business-friendly atmosphere in the state, adding that the government is unending, and for the people.

The meeting, which was a follow up to the governor’s recent interaction with investors during the last London Summit on ‘Achieving Global Peace Through Trade’, at Westminster in UK, afforded British-African Business Alliance Limited the opportunity to explore investment windows in the area of human capacity development, real estate and power generation, while PJ-IC International looked into gas cylinder production and agricultural processing lines.

The governor assured the investors of the state government readiness to partner the companies for speedy delivery of the housing scheme, explaining that the imperative of keeping the cost within affordable limits of civil servants was to ensure that the targeted beneficiaries are not priced out hence defeating the purpose.

According to him, “On the low-cost housing, there’s a scheme we’ve designed and we already have in the coffers (prepaid) N5 billion set aside to deliver some medium density housing of about 675 units.

“We’ve tried something before but at the end of it all, we realised the cost was much more than what the capacity of the 10-15 years mortgage that the public servants could finance, so the houses end up being acquired by businessmen who could afford much more, who then lease them out to the civil servants at a cost that swallows up all their earnings.

“So the purpose and the social contract I have with them get defeated ab initio.”

Emmanuel decried the situation where farmers are compelled to sell off their harvest at prices too low for business due to the perishable nature of farm produce, and therefore, expressed readiness to partner PJ-IC International for a farm produce processing line.

The partnership, he affirmed, would make farming a lucrative business with a vast value chain where farmers have ready off-takers at acceptable prices, assuring the investors of fertility of Akwa Ibom soil to produce enough to feed the factories.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer, British African Business Alliance Limited, David Smith, expressed delight on his second visit to Nigeria, saying the visit is a follow up to the discussion with  the governor on harnessing the abundant gas deposits in the state to generate electricity.

He assured the governor on human capacity building through vocational education and provision of low-cost housing by his company, and disclosed that his company was willing to ship a ready-made gas plant into the state.

Smith said the investment-friendly atmosphere of the state administration has attracted other partners with specialty in waste recycling and power generation to invest in the state, promising that the company will arrive soon.