The Federal Government yesterday said it was working along side other stakeholders to raise $500million for the take-off of the Nigeria Special Economic Zones Company (NSECo).
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enalema who spoke with reporters in Abuja during a briefing, said the government has to contribute its counterpart fund of $125million which has not been released.
Enalema said the only money sitting in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) presently is the first payment from the government of $14.3million which has not been touched at all. This he said is different from the $14.3million payment.
He said the cash is awaiting completion, adding that as soon as the other investors pay their part of the money, the project will be launched.
According to him, NSEZCo has gone through approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), appropriation by the National Assembly and registered with the CBN. “As soon as all this was done, the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) then transferred the $14.3million to the CBN account which was registered under the NSEZCo name, no one has touched this money; it is in the CBN right now as I am speaking contrary to speculation that the money has been withdrawn. No one will touch the money until all the other investors contribute what they should for the project and then the launching will take place. I want to say that there is also an allocation in the budget for the special economic zones,” he said.
He said NSEZCo is a presidential initiative through the partnership of the Ministry with NEPZA, arguing that NEPZA has for the past few years, been doing what should be done in terms of budget and implementation.
He said: “I agree that the Kano Free Trade Zone has been underutilised, which is why I said earlier that if you are going to do something new, you start by upgrading on what you already have; we have taken several steps to make it better and the result has already started showing. If you go to Kano now, it is no longer the same; we have been upgrading the infrastructure for the last two years.
“We have agreed we are going to work with private operators both for Kano and for Calabar. We are going through a process by working with Bureau of Public Enterprises to identify the right operators to partner with us to commercialise and provide the services including marketing services to bring in those who want to operate.
“We are showcasing the zones, both Calabar and Kano, to these investors who are coming in. Already, investors are signifying interest in the Kano Free Trade Zone, which is very good. It does take time but the effort of this government will bear long range enduring sustaining result.
“On the Export Expansion Grant, when we came in was suspended and had accumulated a lot of obligations that people filed for and had not been paid. The government now went ahead to separate the past from the present, presently the Ministry of Finance is taking the issue to the National Assembly and it is progressing well. We also streamlined it to avoid abuse and irregularities, we are now using more automation.”
