The Ogun Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service said it generated N161million revenue from the Ogun Quangdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ), Igbesa in 2014.
Controller of the command, Comptroller Mamudu Haruna who gave the figure yesterday during a facility visit to the zone led by the Coordinator in charge of Zone ‘A’, Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Victor Gbemudu, said the amount represent a 100 percent increase from the N75 million the command generated in 2013.
He said the upsurge in the revenue is as a result of the increased activities at the Ogun FTZ even as he appealed to the ACG to always respond promptly to applications requesting for transfer of containers of raw materials from the seaport to the zone
“As you can see from the expansion going on at the zone, it is our belief that whenever we send documents to your table, they will not stay long. When I took over here, we have a duty of less than N40 million but today we thank God, we have a duty of over N160 million,” he said.
Haruna also reiterated the Ogun State government’s commitment towards rehabilitating the access road leading to the zone in order to improve its operations.
Speaking earlier, Gbemudu said he was impressed with the level of activities in the zone saying the management of the zone should “be given a pat on the back” for a job well done.
He said with the manufacture of local materials at the zone including tiles and furniture, importers need not travel out of the country to import the items that can be locally produced in the country.
He said the establishment of free trade zones by the government was aimed at promoting the economy through local production and creation of employment for the teeming youths.
“Most of the tiles that some of our importers import are now locally manufactured here so rather than go in and waste all the time and create employment opportunities in other parts of the world, let us encourage them to buy these products here and increase our workforce and our input in terms of the raw materials,” he said.
He assured that the Customs management would continue to partner and encourage the Ogun Quangdong FTZ in order to expand and create more jobs for the youths.
Responding, General manager, OGFTZ, Jason Han disclosed that over 4,000 workers were engaged by 15 companies in operation out of 40 located within the zone.
He appealed for the development road, water and Internet facilities among others infrastructures in the zone.
The NCS team visited eight of the companies in operation including the Goodwill Ceramics, which is said to be the largest tile manufacturing plant in Africa.
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