Ondo State in Nigeria

Ondo State, with an appellation of the SUNSHINE STATE and the capital AKURE was created in February 3, 1976 as one the 36 States of the Federation of Nigeria.

With a VISION to make Ondo State the best-administered State in Nigeria and the cynosure of all eyes, of which all its citizens shall be proud; where equity, justice, and fairness shall be the driving forces of governmental action and a MISSION to mobilize the people of Ondo State to harness all our God-given resources, create and use wealth for the ends of individual happiness, collective fulfilment and peaceful cohabitation in an environment of transparent and honest leadership.

Key Goal: A caring heart: advancing the frontiers of Governance in Ondo State.

Location Made up of 18 Local Government Areas is located in the Southwestern Zone of Nigeria as shown in the map above. The state lies between longitudes 4”30” and 6” East of the Greenwich Meridian, 5” 45” and 8” 15” North of the Equator. This means that the state lies entirely in the tropics. Ondo State is bounded in the North by Ekiti/Kogi States; in the East by Edo State; in the West by Oyo and Ogun States; and in the South by the Atlantic Ocean.

Olokola Free Trade Zone (OKFTZ)

The Ok Free Trade Zone is developed by the OK Free Trade Zone Enterprise (OKFTZ Enterprise) a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) between the two States Ogun and Ondo State and the Belgian Company IPEM.

IPEM (International Port Engineering and Management) is a European Engineering and Investment Company specialized in port related infrastructures and Free Trade Zones.

While the zone is promoted by the two state Governments of Ogun and Ondo State, IPEM is the technical Partner in the PPP and brings it financial and technical capabilities to the project. In this way, the strengths of both the private and public sector are combined to turn this development into a success.

With its Headquarters and commercial department in based in Lagos and operational and technical department based in the OK Free Trade Zone, the OKFTZ Enterprise has a strong structure in place to assist your developments and to serve all your needs and requirements.

The OK Free Trade Zone is located around Olokola, at less than 100km east from Lagos, and covering a zone on both Ondo State and Ogun State. An area of more than 10.000ha is turned into a state of the art Free Trade Zone with Deep Sea Port. General services and utilities are provided for you by the European Zone Management, so you just need to plug in and start your business.

The large sea front offers space to a State of the Art Deep Sea Port, which will become the gateway to and from Nigeria and will offer an alternative and expansion of the congested Port of Lagos. According to the master plan, the Zone is divided in several zones, to group and accommodate your business in the best way.

Olokola Free Trade Zone Proposed Project Facilities

The Port complex will have the following port and ancillary facilities:

1. A break-water inland labour or other structures designed to provide protection against swell from the Atlantic Ocean

2. A linear quay measuring 1750 meters

3. A 400x 1600 meters container yard

4. An appropriate number of gantry cranes and other equipment for container handling

5. Adequate storage and gate facilities

6. Administrative and operations buildings and support infrastructure

7. Good quality access to interstate highways

The Free Trade Zone will be designed to provide infrastructure that will support various demands, which would include the following:

1. A logistics base serving the Western-based activities of the Oil and Gas industry

2. Onshore LNG/LPG plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants

3. Heavy and Light industries for export, manufacturing/assembly, processing, packaging, bulk breaking, fabrication, machine tools etc

4. International commercial, residential and recreational areas

5. Airstrip and helipad.

6. Bonded storage warehouses and pipe rack.

7. Office building and suites

8. Fuel and water bunkering facilities

9. Internal road network

10. Electricity supply and distribution network including backup facilities

11. Fire Service Station

12. Police, Customs and Immigration posts

13. Sewage and sewage treatment plants

14. Telecommunication facilities

Other Marketing Attractions

1. Out of Nigeria’ estimated coastline of 450 km, the eastern flank of about 200 km harbors active seaports, namely Calabar, Onne, Port-Harcourt and Warri. Only the Lagos port serves the longer western flank.

2. The only Oil and Gas Free Zone and major logistics base serving the activities of the oil industry is at Onne Port Complex. This is far from the majority of the country’s oil blocks situated offshore. Deep and Ultra Deep water oil blocks including a substantial part of the Nigeria/Sao Tome Joint Development Zone are situated far west of Onne in the eastern flank of the Nigerian Coast.

3. The two operational Free Trade Zones in the country are at Calabar and Onne in the eastern flank of the country.

4. An Oil and Gas free Zone and major logistics base in the western axis will provide an alternate e to Onne and complement it in improving the economics and operational responsiveness in the increasing and expanding exploration and exploitation activities of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry.

5. Taken together, the western flank of Nigeria is under serviced by ports, Oil and Gas Free Zone, major logistics bases and free Trade Zones. The prevailing congestion in Lagos metropolis as a whole and the continuing deterioration in infrastructure strongly suggest that Lagos alone cannot adequately satisfy the needs of the western axis of the country.

Economic and Financial Viability

The critical issues in port planning, development and management are the ability of a port to conveniently receive and effectively service ships calling at the port at the least cost and in the shortest time.

Preferred ports worldwide that distinguish themselves with their high competitive profile are invariable ports with:

1. Specialized/wide berths

2. Berthing and access channel depths of at least 15m

3. Spacious container yards

4. Secure warehouses

5. Specialized loading/offloading gantry cranes

6. Adequate transportation infrastructure which ensure convenient movement of goods into and from the port zone

7. Efficient port operating systems handled by proactive port Management

Flowing from the prevailing conditions above, there is a compelling need for a deep-sea port and FTZ as planned, on the western flank of the Niger Delta. Since there is no deep-sea port along the West African Coast, a well-developed, equipped and effectively managed deep-sea port of world-class standard, serviced with good access roads, and properly marketed, will inevitably become the West African hub port and trans-shipment terminal serving Nigeria, the land-locked countries to the north of Nigeria and smaller coastal countries along the West African Coast.

Based on preliminary evaluation, the Free Trade Zone is an attractive investment proposition. From the experience of relatively small Onne Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone and Calabar Free Trade Zone, a well planned FTZ of 10,000 hectares; well serviced with first class infrastructural facilities and superior quality access roads linking inter state highways would have comparative advantage.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1045