The Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano has laid the
foundation for the proposed $350 million, about N63 billion, West Africa Intercontinental
Trade Centre to be situated in Ogbunike in Oyi Local Government Area (LGA) of
the state, reports
DigitalSENSE
Business News.
The Trade Center,
DigitalSENSE Business
News learnt is a major part of the Trade and Commerce category of Governor
Obiano’s Four Pillars of Development.
Other
pillars are Agriculture, Industrialization and Oil and Gas.
DigitalSENSE
Business News gathered that on completion, the Intercontinental Trade
Centre is expected to be the largest and most comprehensive commercial and
entertainment complex in Africa, accommodating a large number of wholesale
plazas and retail clusters, state-of-the-art residential blocks, eateries,
convention centers, a boutique hotel and a motel that will be operated by
leading brands across the globe.
Situated at 7 kilometers away from the commercial city of Onitsha
Main Market, the largest market in West Africa, the Intercontinental Trade
Center is conceived as a one-stop commercial landmark in the entire South
Eastern economic block and a symbol of the entrepreneurial and commercial
acumen of Ndigbo.
Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony, Chief Obiano
told
DigitalSENSE
Business News that it’s historical in the life of Anambra State.
“Today marks a remarkable day in the history of our great
state. It is a sure sign that our people
are marching in the right direction. Recall that my administration is focused
on Four Pillars. Today I am happy that we have attracted the much needed
investment in the Trade and Commerce sector. This symbolic groundbreaking
ceremony marks the beginning of construction works on the most modern market in
Africa right here in our beloved state,” he said.
Giving a rare insight into the equity structure of the
project, Governor Obiano revealed that the state government controls 7 percent
while the host community holds 2.5 percent of the equity.
“The $350m that is projected for this market is broken down
as follows – $15.74bn will be expended on infrastructure, $4.9bn will be spent
on providing electricity to the center while $31.8bn will go into the
construction of residential areas in a new layout that takes into consideration
the factory layout style of the project. My administration will do everything
to make this project a resounding success,” the governor assured while
appealing to all stake holders to rise to the challenge and deliver the
proposed Trade Center in 42 months as projected.
In his remarks, President, West Africa International Trade
Center, Mr. Obiora Anyaralu, lamented the inability of previous leadership to
groom generations of industrialists and entrepreneurs from Anambra State,
arguing that they had invested their resources and genius in developing
virtually everywhere else but their home state, Anambra State should have been
like Dubai.
“I do not see any reason why we should not have something
that is of international standard; something that we can appeal to our brothers
and sisters in Nigeria and the Diaspora to come home and invest in. We have
always done our best to invest and develop other places but we have never taken
the need to invest in our home state seriously. But all that has come to an end
under the leadership of Governor Obiano,” he declared.
Anyaralu further decried that Anambra businessmen and women
usually build mansions in their country homes and abandon them for cockroaches,
rats and reptiles to occupy because there had not been any serious planning to
expand the commercial and industrial capacities of the state on a scale that
would accommodate the entrepreneurial energies of Anambra people.
“The next phase is that we will change the psyche of Ndi
Anambra on the way we should live. We shall plough the sum of $350m into
building mega housing estates in Anambra State to provide world class
residential areas for our people who want to set up businesses and relocate
their families to Anambra. The estates will be built on locations with close
proximity to the Trade Center so that residents can access the Center in less
than 20 minutes. When this Center is
completed, it will be the only such Center in all of Africa. The only other
place you can see a similar project is either Europe or America,” Mr. Anyaralu
assured.
Equally speaking, Managing Director, SGN Housing and
Infrastructures Limited, the funding partners, Mr. Dominic Menouh appreciated
Governor Obiano for the motivation to envision a world-class market.
“This is a market that not only integrates the Nigerian idea
of a place of commerce but a market that represents a point of gathering, a
point of entertainment and a location where people can meet and socialize.
Indeed it is the first time that a market of this type will be built in Nigeria
and Africa,” he said.
Stressing that the complex will not only represent a new
approach to the selling of goods and services but will also be built in line
with the new and green technology.
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