Investors plan airstrip, sink over $60b FDI in Onne

For ease of doing business at the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone (OGFZ), Integrated Logistics Company Limited (Intels) said it has acquired land at Eteo in Eleme, Rivers State, for an airstrip.

According to the company, the airstrip, with the Port Harcourt International Airport some distance away, will bring more convenience to the investment community at the Onne Port in particular and the OGFZ in general, which already has two helipads.

Already, the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) attracted to the zone so far is in excess of $60 billion, making it by far the most successful in the country, with Intels and its parent company, New Orleans, as the biggest investors, according to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA), Mr. Victor Alabo.

The investments include jetty development, reclamation and development, concrete access roads, 981 fully furnished residential flats and hospitality facilities, including a conference centre, 108-room five-star hotel within the premises, and skills acquisition centre for women, among others.

Another significant acquisition in the port, which is one of the gains of ports concession, is the purpose-built 600-tonne Liehbber Crane with 104 tyres, nicknamed Big Mama. At $6 million, it is only one in Africa and four in the world. It can handle cargoes of about 208 tonnes at 17-metre outreach. It has two smaller models at the port.

The other zones have an investment portfolio of about $12 to 15 billion, according to Alabo, who noted that Intels’ “massive investments in the area” stemmed from their confidence in the Nigerian economy.

Speaking on the development of the Onne Port, Alabo disclosed that initially, “the port here had only about seven or nine-metre graft. They have gone to nine and 12 metres.

“It is a public-private partnership between Intels and the Ministry of Transport, and so whatever the size of the cargo, it can arrive at the port here because the graft has been developed, and if you don’t have faith in the economy of this country, you can’t invest that much. Only the last phase of this development is about $3.5 billion.”

He insisted that the local content issue has been quite effective in the area, adding that “most companies here have local content desk, where they comply with the Local Content Act, and there are companies that have done it 100 per cent.”

Meanwhile, Alabo noted that more investment in the downstream petroleum industry was still required in the OGFZ “because we have the raw material of crude oil and gas, and we cannot continue to just export them. They can use these to produce fertiliser, plastics, petrochemicals and others. That is the concept of development now.