by crossriverwatch admin
With an annual double digit growth rate of 30%, Nigeria’s economy ranks amongst the fastest growing in the world and that accounts for government’s aim of attaining a 4,000 Dollars Gross Domestic Product, GDP in the next ten years.
President Goodluck Jonathan made this declaration on today in Calabar while performing the ground breaking ceremony for the 1billion Dollar General Electric (GE) multi service factory at the Calabar Free Trade Zone.
The President who was represented by his Vice, Architect Namadi Sambo, said the economy was witnessing accelerated development through the effective economic and transformation measures put in place by his administration in the past two years.
“We aim at achieving a 4,000 Dollars Gross Domestic Product for our people through the double digit transformation of our economy in the next ten years”.
He said General Electric by investing the sum of 1billion Dollars in Nigeria amply demonstrates its confidence in the Nigerian economy which will not only give a boost to the administration‘s transformation agenda but also further strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s business environment by both local and foreign investors and ultimately add to the value chain of bringing more development to the country especially in its manufacturing sector.
“In 2009 we signed a strategic partnership agreement with GE and in2011, another company to company agreement was signed for GE to handle Nigeria’s healthcare, energy and rail transportation and we are seeing results in that synergy”.
President Jonathan revealed that arising from his administration’s confidence in GE, the company was awarded nine out of the ten Independent Power Projects, IPPs, which are due for commissioning soon and expressed confidence that the multi service projects handled by the company in Calabar would add great value to the country’s manufacturing sector.
Senator Liyel Imoke, the Cross River State governor said the expected impact to Nigeria’s economy through the GE project in Calabar is substantial and amplifies his administration’s confidence in manufacturing and service economy outside overt dependence on oil and gas.
“With this investment, we as a nation need to move from over dependence on oil and gas economy to a production economy which other advancing economies are moving towards to ensure continuous growth”.
He said investment in the state from companies like Dangote, Unicem, Wilmer and others is in excess of 2billion Dollars and this is expected to hit 4billion Dollars in the next two years.
Mr. John Rice, the Global Vice President of General Electric said 1billion Dollars investment in Calabar is the company’s biggest investment in sub-Saharan Africa.
“250 million Dollars would be in capital investment while 850 million dollars would be in infrastructure, workforce, training and human development”.
General Electric, Rice revealed would begin with a training school to attract and train the best talents in engineering and management to suit its purpose to effectively position its labor to handle the Calabar investment which will manufacture equipment for electric installations, health facilities and transportation machines.
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