Tens of core industrialists, investors and business operators in Imo State, at an interactive meeting with Governor Rochas Okorocha at the Imo Trade and Investment Centre, Owerri, have asked for his industrial blueprint, as he has said he intends to industrialize the state in his second tenure.
However, the participants at the business session have pledged to partner with the state government to ensure rapid industrialization of the state.
Also, the business people who were gathered at the instance of Governor Okorocha, also craved the need for communities in the state to form cooperatives groups, as the governor announced his desire to establish factories in the communities.
Governor Okorocha at the interactive session disclosed that the state government has deposited N5 billion with the Imo State Microfinance Bank (IMfB) for communities in the state to access soft loans at 7 percent interest rate, to enable each establish a factory.
But the core industrialists and business operators told the governor that the communities must identity their projects, list their needs and prepare detailed proposals before approaching the Imo Microfinance Bank for the loans.
Governor Okorocha said the move is to kick-start the, ’one community, one factory project’, as part of measures by his administration to boost industrial activities in the State, create wealth, tackle poverty and provide jobs for the people of the State.
Recent state-by-state survey in 2011 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicate that, with 25 percent, Imo is sitting unenviably at the top with the highest unemployment rate in the South East geopolitical zone. This translates to over 1.3 million army of unemployed people.
Although Governor Okorocha did not disclose the modalities of the loan disbursement to the communities, and details of the factories to establish in the communities.
There are at least 637 autonomous communities in Imo spread across the 27 local governments of the state.
Governor Okorocha said the communities in the state will soon access the soft loans at 7% interest rate.
He reaffirmed his determination to actualize his administration’s policy of “factory, factory, factory; Industry, Industry, Industry and Job, Job, Job,” which is the new mantra in the state.
The governor assured the investors and business operators in the state that the state government would always do the needful by providing necessary infrastructure that would make their businesses succeed.
However, Okorocha noted that some of the communities may not viable as factory hosts, hence the need to merge the unviable ones for better result; pointing out that the community based enterprise development strategy will succeed because every community in the state is blessed with one natural resource or the other which can be harnessed to create wealth.
He said good leadership is required, with the right vision and passion to succeed; adding that there is need to raise leaders in businesses and captains of industries, who are not mere business managers.
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