Otti, Geometric, AfCFTA combo raises expectations over Aba manufacturing

• Banker Otti seen to have political will
• Power headache set to ease
• Can manufacture for Nigeria‭, ‬Africa‭, ‬world

Acrescendo of expectations is building up over Aba, one of Nigeria’s major manufacturing hubs, which for decades has had its stars dimmed by the ill luck of bad and incompetent governance and a total neglect of the social and economic infrastructure required to make a manufacturing hub thrive.

The expectations are being built around the provenance of having the banker, Alex Otti, on the saddle as governor of Abia State where the city is located and where vultures had reigned in the corridors of political power; of Geometric Power, promoted by the scientist, Barth Nnaji, a two-time former minister of power and of science and technology; and the unleashing of the exports easing African Continental Free Area (AfCFTA), all three coming into play at the same time.

Many say the stars appear to have started aligning for what is definitely one of Nigeria’s biggest potential for industrial manufacturing renaissance, Aba, Abia State, the state where Otti, well prepared for economic governance, presides over.

Aba is the Nigerian city many readily say mirrors what is said about manufacturing cities in Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, and India, a city whose manufacturing and industrial potential has lain fallow for long out of neglect, but which now has Governor Otti, banker turned politician with a sound understanding of non-politicised economic growth vision, is in charge of the elusive political will; the imminent delivery by Nnaji of  his  Geometric Power, an essential ingredient for manufacturing to triumph; and the opportunities on offer by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), expected to keep the industrious manufacturers in that axis in focus.

Many say Governor Otti appears to be pushing the right buttons already following steps he has taken so far, including the attempt to stop indiscriminate taxation by sanitising immediately upon his swearing in and stopping the disorganised means of collecting taxes and levies he met on ground; his appointment of commissioners and the introduction of a digital tax system, a fraud curtailing system as part of his ambitious plans to reposition the state after it had fallen short of local and international expectations that were tied to its industrial and production hub potential.

The new digital tax system, apart from curtailing fraud, also aims to cut off or drastically reduce intermediaries in the state’s revenue generation process.

Governor Otti said that the introduction of the new digital system would strengthen the state’s tax collection and also promote economic growth and entrepreneurship in the state.

The neglect of Aba by successive governments had been its bane, analysts are quick to say, but they also say such neglect had been underpinned by the lack of vision and the failure to put Aba in the context of the global manufacturing brackets that China, Bangladesh, Vietnam have become as a result of their cheap labour which makes cost of production low. One major sore point to this cost has been the lack of social and economic infrastructure. And for a manufacturing hub like Aba, the major killer has been lack of power, both in adequacy and in quality.

With a proper governor in place, at least one that is expected to view things from a very rational economic prosperity perspective for his people, and one who should have a desire to position his state in the right place on a Nigerian and global manufacturing context, analysts think political will is not expected to be lacking except the governor wants to mess up the reputation he has built over many decades.

For Aba City right now, especially its manufacturing, the problem of power supply may well be on its way to being solved. Barth Nnaji’s Geometric Power has a ring fenced arrangement. He is to generate and distribute. The word has been put out that in two months the company will start generating its own power.

The professor of manufacturing engineering and developer of the $600 million Geometric Power plant in Aba, Abia State, said the 188-megawatt independent electricity plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba, will start to generate electricity within two months.

Nnaji, the group chairman of Geometric Power, explained that the power company will be starting with one of its four General Electric (GE) brand turbines, while the second will come on stream once the performance of the first turbine is declared satisfactory by the team of engineers from KSE Energy of Turkey.

Business A.M. learnt that the engineers on Geometric are led by Ben Caven, a former executive director of the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), who is reputed to be the only person to have run the generation, engineering and transmission divisions of the state-owned power utility.

“The generation of electricity from the Geometric Power plant will be a game-changer in the socioeconomic development of not just Aba city, but nine out of the 17 local government areas in Abia State serviced by Aba Power, a member of Geometric group,” Nnaji declared. 

He said his company has completed building four brand-new power substations and currently refurbishing three substations inherited from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), in addition to providing thousands of kilometres of cables and wires, as well as world-class tubular poles available in only highly industrialised cities such as Tokyo in Japan and San Francisco in California, USA.

Nnaji said all that remains is to provide fuel or gas to the Geometric Power plant through the 27-kilometre gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA in Abia State to the Osisioma Industrial Layout on the Aba outskirts.

He said Oilserv, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous gas pipeline builder, “is doing a good job” in providing pipelines to the power company.

Nnaji, who is also a former minister of science and technology and held the title of “Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the United States”, informed that though work has been completed on the seven power substations, thousands of kilometres of wires, as well as tubular poles, the power infrastructure will be put in use only when the Geometric Power plant becomes operational.

The plant commissioning, he added, would bring about a dramatic improvement in the quality of power supply in the area known as Aba Ring Fenced Area.

He said Aba Integrated Power Project is the only electricity company in Nigeria that generates and also distributes power.

According to him, he chose to cite Geometric Power to catalyse Aba’s development as the headquarters of indigenous technology and manufacturing. “With constant, quality and affordable electricity soon, the cost of doing business in [Aba and] Abia State will reduce significantly; and this will, in turn, impact on the national economy,” he noted.

As Aba makes a return to being the headquarters of indigenous technology and manufacturing, it will do so  with its business people fully aware and exposed to explore the huge market opportunities inherent in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and the need for them to tap into these and reap big profits.

The Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) in Aba recently organised a conference which brought together most of the business people in Aba, with the motive to open unto them limitless opportunities for the manufacturers and fabricators should they embrace AfCFTA framework.

Themed “First AfCFTA Market Opportunities Conference”, the meeting was organised by the Continental Export Import (CONEX) Limited.

Realising Aba’s development as the headquarters of indigenous manufacturing, the speakers including Barth Nnaji, advised Aba business people to embrace the African Continental Free Trade Area, as it will eliminate multiple taxes by various local, state governments as well as the federal government.

The conference speakers reminded the Aba business people that Nigeria has signed the AfCFTA agreement and ratified it; thus, attaining the status of a state party whose goods and services can be exported to other African countries with relative ease.

According to Nnaji and other speakers, Aba businesses have excelled in textiles, leather products and metals, which need large export markets using the AfCFTA arrangement.

African MSMEs can benefit from greater access to new markets and the possible economic transformation that competition in these markets could promote, and are regarded as key targets for the AfCFTA. The AfCFTA will address the excessively high trade costs and steep tariff barriers in many countries that limit the potential of women and youth in the business sector, ultimately stifling economic growth and undermining the continent’s overall development.