Due to massive industrialisation, a plot of land in some parts of Nnewi, Anambra State, is now put up for as high as N50 million.
BusinessDay’s finding in one of the emerging industrial hub of Africa indicates that some investors are shelving expansion plans while entrants are moving to other places including Owerri in Imo State where land acquisition is cheaper.
A parcel of land in the town under normal circumstances goes for between N3 million and N5 million, but heavy and massive quest for virgin land has pushed it to high heavens.
An industrial consultant, Sam Onwugbenu, principal partner, B&P Associates, confirmed in an interview in his office on Onitsha Road, that Nnewi was sitting on a time-bomb. It is gathered that those worst hit in the skyrocketing cost of land in Nnewi are companies planning to expand.
Most of the companies now into manufacturing such as Godwin Chris Industries, Ibeto, Innoson, Chicason, were trading companies where their chief executives had acquired parcels of land or had family lands a long time before now.
BusinessDay gathers that one particular company, involved in expansion to introduce more production lines, is battling with a demand for N50 million per plot for the many plots under consideration. The company considered quitting to Owerri zone when fresh negotiations reduced the demand to almost N30 million per plot, an amount still considered outrageous in a semi-urban area in Nigeria.
Some industrialists are said to apply pragmatism by offering cash and kind (jobs) to land owners, but more manufacturers are still coming up with investments plans as Chinese manufacturers have teamed with big-time traders (importers) to turn Nnewi into a hot zone.
Onwugbenu said the massive hunt for virgin land in the area and the clustering of manufacturing ventures was so because government failed to act ahead of the times.
He said Nnewi should have been designated as industrial zone long ago and that an industrial master plan should have been developed with roads, and power, so that investors would then acquire such serviced plots from the government.
The expert who worked and lived in the UK for years with B&P Associates (UK) warned that allowing massive industries in the residential areas of Nnewi along with heavy influx of workforce would create environmental problems soon.
“Has anybody considered disposal methods and effluent in Nnewi? It is easier to plan a new town than to correct mistakes when a town has overgrown with industries and residences”.
He said the roads are narrow for the trucks that force themselves through, while disposal systems of industrial waste were being squeezed through existing normal disposal channels.
He wondered how governments ignored such a growing industrial hub where thousands of youths find jobs. He said any reasonable government in other countries would not just sit and watch the city grow unplanned and allow private persons use the land without plan.
“Some states have industrial layouts without industries, but Nnewi has industries without industrial layout,” he said.
Four companies alone visited by BusinessDay account for almost 20,000 direct jobs
