By Felix Khanoba
The Oil and Gas Free Trade Zones Authority (OGFZA) says it attracted the sum of $16.6 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the Nigerian economy within a 20-year period covering 2001 and 2020.
OGFZA also said during the same period, it also attracted the sum of N255.33 billion local investments into the country.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, OGFZA, Mr Umana Okon Umana, gave the figure during a chat with journalists in Abuja.
He added that between January and May this year, the sum of N 9.41 billion has been generated as revenue by OGFZA through the free trade zones.
A breakdown of the revenue showed that N2.1 billion 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 has 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 organisation.
This, he stated, had resulted in the huge interests by both local and foreign investors in the zones.
For instance, the OGFZA boss stated that currently, there are about N6.1 billion investments that are being expected to materialize in the Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone.
His words: “To grow investment also means 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, and we came out with a timeline for delivery of our services.
“For example, in the past we did not have a specific timeline for renewal of license or to reissue new licenses or even to process cargo.
“We came up with specific timelines – we say for example that we will take only 48 hours to clear cargos, if the cargos were consigned in Free Zones. It will take seven days to renew the license when all the requirements have been met and it will take 21 days to issue a new license 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.
For instance, he said between 2005 and 2015, the authority has created 40,508 direct jobs and indirect jobs with conservative estimates 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.
“Between 2005-2015, the authority has created 40,508 direct jobs and indirect jobs with conservative estimate it’s about 160,000.
” Number of individuals that have been trained by expertise and various companies that come in, the actual figure from 2010-2020 was 35,170.”
