Leading investors in Nigerian Free Trade Zones have threatened to commence divestment from the zones following what they called an attempt by the federal ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment to transfer supervision of the Zones from Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zones (OGFZA).
In a statement signed by Director, Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, Lagos, Yusufu Abdullahi, and made available to journalists, described the move as “a ploy to destroy multi-million naira private investment in the free zones.”.
He therefore, called on NEPZA “to call a meeting of stakeholders and investors on the subject.
“The Governing Board of NEPZA should meet with the Stakeholders to listen to our concerns on this issue and collate coordinated views and inform FMITI before going to FEC with a memo.The course of action is to prevent possible disinvestment in the Free Zone Scheme because the affected Zones are all Private Sector Direct Investment without a single government grants.
“For the report to be genuine it should be processed through NEPZA and Free Zone Developers cum-Zone Sponsors, Zone Management and selected Free Zone Enterprises under the Regulatory Authority of NEPZA, they constitute Stakeholders.
The reason is to prevent disinvestment in the Free Zone Sector because the affected Zones are all Private Direct Investment without a single government grants”, the statement noted.
The Zones are: Dangote Industries Free Zone, LADOL Free Zone, Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, Tomato Industrial Park, and Olokola Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone.
