Aba shoe, garment industry targets global presence
The Abia State government and the major players in Aba shoe and garment industry are targeting global presence, according to Emmanuel Nwakpadolu president of Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA).
“The emphasis is on getting the products to meet international standards, so that if you pick any product from Aba, be it leather or garment, you will have value for money,” Nwakpadolu, who is also the managing director of Cone Oil & Chemicals Limited, told Real Sector Watch in an interview in Lagos.
“The governor has the plan of making sure that the Abians that are in the shoe production business are well-trained. A large number of them will be trained abroad and they will come back and train others. The government’s interest is not just in the production of shoes but also in packaging, because the product is incomplete without good packaging,” he explained.
Abia State governor secured a $1.5bn deal for the establishment of a shoe industry in Aba from Huajian Shoe Industry in Dongguan, Guangzhou, China.
According to president of ACCIMA, the deal was targeted at making sure Aba produces for the nation, for Africa and for the entire world.
“The idea of stimulating Aba shoe and garment industry came up when the economic crisis started. A question was asked in the Governors’ Forum: In a situation like this, what do we do? They now resolved that each state governor should go back home and look for areas of comparative advantage of his state and focus on them. In that case, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu came back, went round and realised that Aba was known for leather and garment. He took it up with businessmen and citizens of the state. He ensured that these things Aba was known for came into the limelight to increase the GDP of the nation and that of Abia State,” Nwakpadolu reminisced.
He further explained the governor had consulted with the Federal Government, federal ministries and parastatals, the military, the paramilitary to make sure Aba produced their uniforms, adding that the target of all the major players was to make sure that Aba got back to its former glory of the 1970s and 1980s.
Aba is hard hit by poor quality of road infrastructure. But Nwakpadolu said the government was already repairing major roads in the city to aid its industrialisation vision.
He further called on the electricity providers to ensure stable power supply to support the growth of businesses across Nigeria, stressing that without stable electricity, nothing would work efficiently in the country.
ODINAKA ANUDU