The Federal Government yesterday distributed 500KVA generators to eight states assessed to have started the establishment of enterprise zones in their states.
The pledge for the provision of the generators was made during the administration of the former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Charles Ugwu, to encourage industrial cluster concept in states.
The former minister had said that the first 10 states to start the concept would be rewarded with the provision of generators to power their industries.
The states that benefitted are: Imo, Ebonyi, Kogi, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Osun, and Kano.
The government not only provided generators, but also assured the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) of good road network.
The Minister of State, Commerce and Industry, Mr. Humphrey Abbah, who presented the generators to state commissioners, said unreliable power supply had been a major challenge for manufacturers.
He said: "As you may be aware, the government had designed numerous programmes aimed at revitalising the industrial sector, but, unfortunately, these efforts have not achieved the desired goals.
"This situation has been a source of concern to the government. Part of this is the contribution of manufacturing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which was as low as 5.6 per cent by 2006, while the importation of consumer goods and raw materials constituted over 75 per cent of import bills. The share of manufacturing to non oil exports was less than 50 per cent.
"Factors that constitute stumbling blocks to the rapid growth of industries are, poor infrastructure, lack of skilled labour, unreliable power supply, multiplicity of taxes, absence and lack of access to credit facilities, and so on.
"The acquisition of land and legal documentation and high cost of provision of infrastructural facilities like power, water, telecommunication, access roads, could account for 30-40 per cent of total setup cost."
Abbah said the new industrial development strategy was hinged on cluster concept, which entails a group of small enterprises operating in a defined geographical location, producing similar products or services.
"The enterprises should be cooperating and competing with each other in order to overcome internal problems, setting common strategies to overcome external challenges and reaching distant market through development network."
According to him, "The cluster concept is expected to work at five levels: Free Trade Zones, Industrial Parks, Industrial cluster, Enterprise Zones, Incubators.
"In line with this mandate, the ministry has chosen enterprise zones to jumpstart the implementation of the cluster concept on the recognition that it is the simplest and cheapest to implement."
The Commissioner for Commerce, Industry, Corporation, and Tourism, Kano State, Alhaji Ahmed Yakassai, appealed to the government to follow up with the second phase, which is providing other states with the same generators.
He praised the government for the project and assured that the generator sets would be well taken care of
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