The Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has restated his<\/p>\n
government’s commitment to provide enabling environment for trade and
\ncommerce to thrive in the state.<\/p>\n
Governor Ikpeazu was speaking when he paid a courtesy visit to the British
\nHigh commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Ankwright, at the British High
\nCommission in Abuja.<\/p>\n
He appealed to British companies and investors to come and invest in Abia.<\/p>\n
He said he was at the British High Commission to solicit for collaboration
\nand partnership from the British Government and people to further develop
\nAbia State.<\/p>\n
Governor Ikpeazu stressed that Abia state is strong in small and medium
\nenterprises (SME).<\/p>\n
He added that \u200eAba, which he described as the SME capital of Nigeria, has
\ntalents and craftsmen.<\/p>\n
These, according to him, can drive the economy of Nigeria towards
\naccelerated growth and prosperity.<\/p>\n
He identified some of the major challenges affecting the drive for trade
\nand commerce expansion in the state to include infrastructural decay,
\nespecially in the area of federal roads and epileptic power supply.<\/p>\n
He noted that it is also difficult to access good water supply at homes.<\/p>\n
The governor appealed for assistance in the areas of capacity building,
\ntraining and support for tax reforms.<\/p>\n
He also assured that his government is working hard to quickly meet some
\nof the identified challenges in order to position the state as the number
\none investment destination in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
According to him, the commercial city of Aba hopes to benefit from the
\nindependent power of Geometric power Limited.<\/p>\n
It will commence operation as soon as the federal government is able to
\nresolve the impasse between the independent power provider and the
\ndistribution firms.<\/p>\n
He maintained that a lot has been done to ensure adequate security in the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
However, resources are still required to step up security through
\nacquiring security surveillance systems in addition to other security
\ninfrastructure and technologies as the state has seamless borders with
\nmany states that are also security challenged.<\/p>\n
Responding, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Ankwright,
\nsaid the British Government assistance is currently focused on attacking
\npoverty and humanitarian crises among others.<\/p>\n
He promised to talk to his colleagues at DFID to see how they can come in
\nand assist the government and people of Abia State.<\/p>\n
He also noted that part of his job involves alerting British companies to
\nopportunities for investment and encouraging them to come and invest.<\/p>\n
He assured the Governor that he will communicate the opportunities
\navailable in Abia to British investors.<\/p>\n
The Governor was accompanied on the visit by the commissioner for finance,
\nHonorable Obinna Oriaku.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has restated his government’s commitment to provide enabling environment for trade and commerce to thrive in the state. Governor Ikpeazu was speaking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n