Developer of $600m Geometric Power talks up Aba as project site 

BY MADUABUCHI EFEGADI 

• City’s economic, technological potential great

• Rues project’s 9-yr rights ownership tussle

• Project’s expected ROI could be affected

Barth Nnaji, the Nigerian professor of manufacturing engineering and robotics in the United States and developer of the $600 million Geometric Power plant in Aba, Abia State, is talking up the city and why his company sited the multi-million-dollar power plant in the South-East’s industrial city.

According to him, Aba’s tremendous economic and technological potential plays out as the city’s comparative advantage.

Nnaji, speaking during a leadership colloquium on Igbo leadership and development recently, narrated an engagement between him and the late World Bank president, James Wolfensohn, and Nigeria’s then finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (now director-general of World Trade Organisation – WTO) that preceded the decision to site the 188-megawatts Aba Power project in the city.

He said, in 2004, Okonjo-Iweala invited ex-World Bank president Wolfensohn to Aba to see first-hand, the city’s incredible economic and technological potential

“After the (late Wolfensohn) visit, I was asked by the duo to consider building a 50-megawatt power plant in Abia for manufacturers, both big ones like the Star Paper Mill; and small ones like the hundreds of excellent shoemakers and clothiers at the famous Ariaria Market,” the Geometric Power group’s chief executive explained.

He explained that he was passionate about Nigeria’s rapid development, starting with Igbo land because of the structural problems it (Igbo land) has faced since the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970; and also because of its enormous technological and economic potential.

But he regretted a nine-year tussle over the right ownership of the Aba-Ringed Fence Area which took a toll on the financiers of the $600 million project, a development that could further delay the project’s expected return on investment (ROI).

“Since 2004, it has been tears, sweat and blood, to borrow the words of Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister. I don’t want to tell the story of sweat, blood and tears now; all I can say is, just this moment, the game is worth the candle,” Nnaji said.

“If the 188-megawatt Geometric Power Plant in Aba or the Aba Power distribution firm in Osisioma Industrial Layout had been located in Ikeja or in the Ilupeju Industrial Estate in Lagos State or in the Agbara Industrial Layout in Ogun State or around the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, we would not have experienced a nine-year tussle over the right ownership of the Aba-Ringed Fenced Area, which took a toll on the financiers of the $600 million project, the investors, the host community, suppliers, contractors, the Aba business community and the people and government of Abia State. The return on investment would have been quicker and bigger,” he explained.

But he further explained the choice of locating in Aba was more strategic than for only ROI, which only the investors and promoters of the power project would have benefited directly, leaving the entire people and governments of Igbo land as the losers.

“Nothing can give as much fulfilment and satisfaction as working wholeheartedly for your people. It took the Nnewi people quite a lot when they decided to develop their hometown themselves. Even without basic infrastructure like roads, electricity and telephone services, the Nnewi people decided to take their destiny in their hands after the Nigerian Civil War. They have made a resounding success of this resolve and vision. The Nnewi example is inspiring, and it should inspire all the people and governments in Nigeria,” Nnaji stated.

He said he felt the reason late Wolfensohn and Okonjo-Iweala approached him (in 2004) obviously was because he had led a small team of dedicated Nigerian engineers and entrepreneurs to build a 22-megawatt Emergency Plant in Abuja in 2001 for the supply of electricity to the State House, the NNPC headquarters, the Abuja Business District and other places.

He said he acceded to Okonjo-Iweala’s and Wolfensohn’s request, without the two realising that his enthusiastic acceptance was because the plant would be located in Aba, a city that has a special place on those interested in seeing Nigeria’s rapid progress. “Aba is the home of indigenous manufacturing, innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said.

Another reason for accepting to build the plant in Aba, Nnaji explained further, is to help resolve the severe poor power supply situation industrialists face in Igbo land. “I had experienced, first-hand, what industrialists in Igboland were going through. As a professor of manufacturing engineering in the United States in the 1990s, I decided to build a plant in Emene, Enugu, to produce vehicle spare parts, including engines, of the highest standard in the world. After all, I had watched my former students from Taiwan and other places in Southeast Asia rush home to produce sophisticated auto parts and engines. A large swath of land was purchased for this purpose, but when my South Korean partners visited Enugu, it became obvious that the project would not take off principally because of poor electricity. It was while I was thinking of how to help resolve the electricity problem in AlaIgbo that Dr Okonjo-Iweala and Dr Wolfensohn made the request. The rest is history,” he said.

He assured that, with his Geometric Power on stream soon in Aba, it would significantly assist millions of NdiIgbo, who need not be in Abuja or Port Harcourt or even abroad, to do well.

Nnaji explained that leaders in Igboland in the 1940s till recent years, did demonstrate it is possible to have rapid economic progress back home. “They built Nigercem at Nkalagu in 1955, Nigersteel and Nigergas, and Emene Industrial Estate, all in Enugu; the African Continental Bank; the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; the farm settlements; the Trans Amadi Industrial Estate in Port Harcourt; Golden Guinea Brewery in Umuahia; the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State; Hotel Presidential in Enugu and Port Harcourt; Aba Textile Mills; Owerri Standard Shoe Factory; the glass factories in Aba and Port Harcourt; and many other things which culminated in Eastern Nigeria becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in the world by the mid-1960s.”

He assured that Geometric Power Ltd would be making its contribution to help reclaim the old economic days of the Great Zik of Africa, M.I. Okpara and many others, and insisted that, once Geometric Power addresses the electricity challenge in nine out of 17 local government areas in Abia State fully, the sky will be the starting point of attainments of the state, as it can set the stage of a development miracle which has been waiting to happen.