Investment in Free Trade Zone worth $20bn- Trade Minister

Nigerian Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo, has estimated cumulative investments in the 30 years of operations of the free zone scheme in Nigeria at $20 billion.

The Minister made the disclosure at the inauguration of the Nigeria Economic Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) new Lagos office named Adeniyi Adebayo house, while stating that the generous fiscal incentives associated with the free zone scheme remained a veritable source of economic development.

According to him, the free zone, in 2021, generated N250 billion in both foreign and local direct investments; N35 billion in Customs duty payments and N65 billion in Local Import/backward linkage.

The scheme generated N500 million in Pay as You Earn (PAYE), 25,000 in new employment and 5,000 transfers of skills.

He applauded NEPZA for achieving the mission of formulating and implementing policies and programmes that attracts investments, boost industrialisation, increase trade and exports and develop enterprises.

According to him, “The Free Zone Scheme is one of the prime initiatives of the government, for diversification of Nigeria’s economic base, in order to achieve the vision of growing the economy, creating jobs and generating wealth.”.

Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, Managing Director, NEPZA, said that the choice of Lagos as its liaison office was based on pure economic considerations, explaining that 80 percent of the special economic zones is located in Lagos and within 100km of its radius, making the city the country’s most potent economic gateway.

“This is our way of bringing NEPZA closer to our investors for sustained customer service, to continually attract and retain investors,” he said.

The Nation