Ford Foundation has adopted Abia State as a key partner State in Nigeria, based on the quality of leadership the State is enjoying at the moment.
The sincerity of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to improve infrastructure in Abia, especially Aba, to promote home-grown technology through the Aba-Made campaign, attracted Ford Foundation and other private and government agencies to support the programme.
Ford Foundation support for Aba redevelopment effort, which started with the Aba Urban Development Summit in January 2016, an activity funded by Ford Foundation, has culminated into several other engagements for the benefit of the people of Abia State.
The Made-in-Aba brand campaign produced by TBWA, a world-class advertising and branding agency, which won an international award in South Africa in 2017, was sponsored by Ford Foundation.
According to Paul Nwulu, programme manager, West Africa Office of Ford Foundation, “The beauty of that award was that the Made-in-Aba brand campaign, which was aired on major international media including CNN, was adjudged the best city based brand campaign in the last 5 years.
“The campaign besides showcasing the ingenuity and potentials of Aba, as a city, further showcased the state government’s effort in redeveloping Aba, the commercial hub of Nigeria.”
Nwulu said Ford Foundation observed that Aba would do wonders if a platform that could elevate the city was created.
In his words, “Aba can be the driver of economic growth, not only in Abia, but also in the entire South-East region.”
He affirmed that Ford Foundation had been behind the campaign from inception, because they have found a worthy partner in Abia State government.
The Ford Foundation, according to Nwulu, is an international development funder that supports innovative ideas and efforts, and when Governor Okezie Ikpeazu came on board two years ago, we initiated a conversation and since then, there has been several engagements with Abia State government and the Ford Foundation and they have all being fruitful engagements.
Governor Ikpeazu, who was elated on the development, expressed gratitude to Nwulu and the Ford Foundation for their huge support for the Made-in-Aba campaign.
The Governor stated that he embarked on the promotion of Made-in-Aba products on his conviction that there abound enough creativity and ingenuity in Aba to compete with the best in the world, and also as a means to Nigeria’s economic recovery.
He explained that having seen the efforts those creative entrepreneurs in Aba were making to make life easy for others, he wanted to ensure that his administration provided the needed push and enabling environment for entrepreneurship and businesses to thrive in Aba.
He informed Nwulu that the state government had taken the promotion of made-in-Aba products to a global level, and there was need to improve the quality of products and informed Ford Foundation that government was building capacity of shoemakers.
Currently, 30 shoemakers are in China undergoing automated shoe production training, while another 70 will take their turn.
He pledged the state government’s support for all the initiatives of Ford Foundation aimed at redeveloping Aba into an international hub for trade and commerce.
Ford Foundation is one of the largest and most influential private foundations in the world. In 2011, the Ford Foundation granted more than $400 million to organisations implementing projects towards poverty reduction, the promotion of democracy and the advancement of knowledge worldwide.
The Foundation supports a great variety of projects in the fields of education, capacity building, human rights promotions, gender equality and sustainability.
The Foundation supports organisations working in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Within these regions the Foundation selects focal areas, which receive priority funding under certain schemes. The Foundation among other things promotes accountability and transparency, to reform global financial governance and to strengthen the role of civil society actors in supporting democratic processes.
The Made-in-Aba campaign, spearheaded, by Governor Ikpeazu, to promote goods made in the State and stimulate industrialisation, got a boost in 2017, following the launch of a branding and marketing campaign initiated by TBWA Concepts, an award winning advertising, media and public relations outfit with support from Ford Foundation.
The project, is aimed at providing branding and marketing to finished leather goods, garments and machine tools, made in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
Kelechi Nwosu, managing director, TBWA Concept, explained that the proudly made-in-Aba initiative offered to start the branding conversation to build an Aba area brand as well as stimulate and grow local brands from Aba.
He stated that Aba had talented and industrious people, but lacked branding and marketing to compete favourably at the international arena, stressing that branding would bring standards and innovation to goods produced in the area.
“It is time for us to begin to build strong brands out of Aba. Branding is about how to bring standards, innovation into the brands that we have and project them to the world.
“It has been done in many parts of the world. We must learn about marketing, we must learn about branding, we must get our people to start thinking about good marketing; we need to develop our products and brand them.”
He explained that TBWA offered services that could make that happen, but stated that Aba people must support and build those brands.
“We can make Aba the next place for marketing. We need to understand Aba, understand marketing and get things working in Aba,” he stated.
He thanked the Governor for his steadfastness in ensuring that Aba made goods were recognised, not only in Nigeria, but all over the world and pleaded for additional support, especially financial support in other phases of the project.
