Lekki Free Trade Zone: Lagos releases N1.6bn counterpart funding
In order to boost the ongoing projects at the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) the Lagos State Government has released N1.6billion counterpart funding for its infrastructural development.
The Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye, who disclosed this at a briefing, in Lagos, said the move was to encourage investors’ participation in the project.
He the state government was engaging the host communities to ensure a sustainable cordial relationship with investors in the zone.
He gave an assurance to the effect that the government had overhauled the security network in the area, in order to guarantee the safety of investment.
Ogunleye noted that World Bank report listed the Lekki Free Zone as the fastest- growing one, adding that the products from there were compliant with international standards, as they went through the standardisation laboratories.
The Commissioner maintained that the LFZ project, which had remained the flagship of the state government’s industrial development initiative, was conceptualised to provide enabling environment for industries to operate, as well as attract both local and foreign direct investments.
Ogunleye added that the Ministry had remained unrelenting in its efforts to attain and sustain a high-level of viable and vibrant commercial and industrial activities, in line with its mission to promote economic growth and development.
He explained that the Ministry had divided the zone into two parcels and four quadrants namely: South-West, South-East quadrant in parcel A and the North-West, as well as the North-East quadrant in parcel B, for ease of development.
Ogunleye stressed that, “To fast-track development in the zone, clearing of a parcel of land measuring about 520,000 square meters and bounded within N3/E6A-N3/E5, N4/6A-N4/E5, N4/E6A-N4/E6 and N5/E6-N5/E6 was being carried out by the contractors from local communities and this has reached 90% completion.”
He said the Lekki Free Zone Project was a catalyst the government hoped would shoot the state into real global economic reckoning.
He said that the project was already attracting considerable number of investors within and outside the country, such as Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Complex at the South-East quadrant.
He noted that the Dangote Group was developing a world- class refinery with a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels of oil per day, adding that the $11 billion project would satisfy local, African and international market demands.
