The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) has said 580 businesses operate across the 43 registered Free Trade Zones (FTZs).
This Managing Director of NEPZA, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, said this during a visit of the National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Hajiya Saratu Iya Aliyu, in Abuja recently.
Prof. Adesugba said Kano and Calabar Free Trade Zones are federal government-owned with a majority of the funding going into infrastructure.
“Since inception, the zone has attracted billions of dollars in both foreign and domestic investments and created over 50,000 direct and indirect jobs,” he said. The NEPZA boss said the Lekki FTZ Lagos State has been earmarked as the site for the first fully equipped and functional Medical Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) in Nigeria to provide healthcare comparable to what Nigerians seek abroad.
The NACCIMA President, Hajiya Aliyu, said the Organised Private Sector (OPS) would work closely with NEPZA to ramp up production of goods for export under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
She said free trade zones would serve as boosts to Nigeria’s quest to dominate exports across Africa as the free trade pact connects trading in the continent.
