Anambra State, a destination point, says Industry Commissioner

From Ifeoma Ejiofor

The Anambra State Commissioner for Industry, Mr. Christian Udechukwu has described the state under Prof Charles Soludo, as a steadily rising economic destination point in Africa.

Mr Udechukwu said that the state has become an increasingly preferred location where numerous developmental and industrial enterprises are being encouraged to establish and flourish.

The Commissioner made this assertion during an interactive session with officials of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) from Lagos State who visited him in Awka.

“Anambra State is steadily planning, organizing, strategizing, and executing to launch an ambitious agenda in Anambra Industrial City with a view to move Anambra State toward becoming one of the global centers of excellence for Industries with the capacity to absorb and process a vast variety of raw materials to finished manufactured products, in automotive industry park, pharmaceutical industry park, agro – processing industry park, leisure – entertainment centres, financial services centres and more.

“Some of the made in Anambra products would be exported back into the global market to earn foreign exchange and to grow our share of global trade. In order to achieve this goal of establishing an emerging manufacturing hub, Mr. Governor, Prof Soludo will soon unveil the Masterplan for the new Anambra Industrial City, the new Awka 2.0, Onitsha 2.0, the Solution Fun City and more.

“In the Ministry, we are looking to grow our export program, we are also aiming to reach out to the world as a rising trading and industrial centre,” he said.

According to him, We are hopeful to partner with UNDP for industrial investment promotion, export development, talent enhancements, global placement of highly skilled talents, capacity building for export focused industries, setting up trading houses in overseas markets and working to attain all compliance with international trades and to access new markets.”

He pointed out that, beyond industrial development that Gov. Soludo is poised to grow a population that is productive at home and exportable abroad as well as ensuring that the next generation is more literate than the current one.

“This is why the Governor is investing free education in public schools and human capacity development through innovation and vocational skills acquisition for youths,” he asserted.

Earlier, the leader of the team Mrs. Joyce Oburu, thanked Mr Udechukwu for availing them the opportunity to interface with him and expressed their happiness to be in Anambra state to consolidate their historical partnership.

Mrs. Oburu said that the aim of their visit was for new program development and data verification for their Small to Medium Enterprise project grant support program that the UNDP are implementing in Anambra State.

She added that the SME Grant Support Scheme project was designed to supporting and enhancing the growth capacity of SME’s using cluster approach that is comprised of two layers which include a grant of 100,000 to 3,000 SME’s in the state and staged capacity building for SME’s through trainings, mentorship and coaching of the entrepreneurs.