Abia plans to revive over 40 moribund industries, build new ones

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia State government has hinted of it’s plan to revitalize about 80 percent of moribund industries in the state in the next one year and also set up new ones.

Aready, a committee set up by Governor Alex Otti charged with taking a census of all moribund and ailing industries in the state has so far counted about 40.

The government said it decided to embark on the industries  revitalization initiative during it’s weekly Executive Council meeting, to boost economic growth, create jobs and reduce crime.

Some giant companies which operated in Abia that have gone moribund include Modern Ceramics Industries, International Glass Industry, Aba, International Equitable Association, Aba, Star Papermill, Aba, amongst others, which government says it would study why they went under and know how it could come in and help revive them.

“Government is close to revitalizing moribund industries that are littered all over the place,” Commissioner for information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, said while briefing newsmen at Government House, Umuahia on Monday evening on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting.

“Government is looking at some number of measures that may include fund support as well as equity investments in such companies as a way of helping to brig them back on their feet.

“Then of course the reason government is doing that is for reasons of economic development of the state and most importantly to provide job opportunities for our teeming youths,” Kanu said.

At the joint Press Briefing, Special Adviser to the Governor on Trade, Commerce and Industry, Mr Nwaka Inem, said the plan was giving teeth to promises the Labour Party made during the electioneering campaigns.

“During the electioneering campaigns, part of what we felt that Abia deserved was to return Abia to the state we saw it as young people, as students,” in the early 1970s when there were all sorts of industries coming up in Aba: from food industry to textile industry to many others. 

“But suddenly, some of them started closing shop and the past government’s were watching them die,” Inem lamented.

But he said that government was determined to revive these industries no matter what caused their going under. 

“Most of those industries closed shop for diverse reasons. Some were pure managerial deficiencies, some were funding challenges because of the poor credit system in the country; some were do to our culture: family succession whereby the founder died, the people that will take over keep on quarrelling till the company dies.

“But Whatever the reason, the interesting thing is that these industries were employing thousands of our people, both young and old.” the Special Adviser added.

He explained that because of the roles the industries played in employing many people and reducing crime, the Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, his given his nod to ascertaining the number of moribund industries in the state with a view to reviving them.

“His Excellency just set up a committee to give him a census of these industries and at the last count, we counted close to 40 industries of different sizes: Star Papermill, International EquitableAssociation, Glass Industry, Modern Ceramics, etc.

“It is the resolve of His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti and the government to make sure that all those industries come back to life,” he said.

Explaining th magic wand the government would employ to achieve its goal of reviving the dead industries, Inem said:

“Those (industries) that have financial or credit challenges, we will employ our contacts within the financial world to solve that problem. Those that it is family problem, we will call, enter into the family and settle the problem. If it is managerial problem, we will provide professional and technical support.”

“Those that are still struggling and are partially active, we will enter and find out their problem and we will support them in one way or the other

“Those that are active and running, we will equally support and encourage them in one way or the other to make sure that they sustain their success story.

“The government is making efforts not only to revive moribund industries but to build new ones. We are in contact with foreign investors and foreign embassies.

“In the coming months, Abia State is going to witness a couple of Industries and investments coming into the state, some of them, because of the Abia Industrial and Innovation Park, others for peculiar reasons. What I can tell you is that before the end of our one year in service, a couple of new investments and new industries would be seen in Aba which would help to reduce to the barest minimum, the number of unemployed youths and the security situation will improve in Abia State. 

According to Inem, “The whole idea is that by the end of next year, 80 percent of these industries would come back working and all the people they have been employing, they get back their job and what that means is that it reduces the available source of criminals because it’s said that an idle man is the devil’s workshop. 

“If those who recruit the youth into crime have 5000 people available to them, by the time we finish, they will have no people available to them and when the number of criminals are small, it’s easier for the security agencies to round them up. But when the number is legion, it becomes difficult,” he noted.