Bayelsa targets pharmaceutical, chemical makers at Eco Industrial Park

Bayelsa State government believes that the unveiling of Eco Industrial Park (EIP) will showcase a world-class industrial park and attract manufacturers in pharmaceutical, chemical, plastic and electrical industries.

 

Speaking at a dinner held weekend to showcase inherent opportunities in the state’s second investment forum to the business community in Lagos, Freda Ruth Bruce-Bennett, director- general, Bayelsa State Development Promotion Agency, said EIP will leverage current and future power generation potential to attract diverse manufacturing businesses to be sited at the EIP.

“The unveiling of the EIP will showcase a world-class eco-industrial park designed to meet the manufacturing needs of the 21st century,” Freda Ruth Bruce-Bennett said.

 

“We seek to attract chemical and pharmaceuticals, domestic and industrial plastics and rubber, wood and wood products, electrical and electronics, non- metallic mineral products, pulp and paper products, and other manufacturing concerns to the EIP,” she said.

She said the second Bayelsa Investment Forum, scheduled to take place between July 29 and 31, will pay closer attention to economic diversification of the state.

 

The investment forum, which will take place in Yenegoa, the state capital, will focus on agriculture and its industrial value chain as well as other key sectors such as power and oil& gas.

 

According to her, the forum will showcase to Nigerians the key areas of collaboration, partnership and investment interest.

“In the first investment forum, we had a very wonderful outcome. We had over 800 participants,” she said.

 

“We had a lot of key conversations.  During last year’s investment forum, our focus was on showcasing and unveiling Bayelsa as a state. It was all about identifying all our opportunities as a state across the board in every sector,” she disclosed.

She said the state will, this year, be looking at where it has comparative advantage, adding that “we are looking at the economic situation in Nigeria and the need to diversify the economy.”

“Historically, the state hosts some of the earliest oil palm estates established in Nigeria. Prior to oil and gas, oil palm was the foundation of wealth in what is today Bayelsa state,” she recalled.

 

She said the state is committed to attracting investors to expand the cultivation, processing and marketing potential of rice and oil palm, leveraging on the clear underlying economic potential, stressing that the forum will bring together large-scale farmers and financiers to take advantage of the enormous agriculture potential of the state.

“Bayelsa state has the largest deposit of natural gas in the country. The government is therefore facilitating investments into power generation investors to add 5,000 to 10,000 mega watts of power to the national grid and transform Nigeria’s economic landscape,” she said.