BUHARI APPROVES WEST AFRICA’S BIGGEST FREE ZONE FOR AKWA IBOM

...$10bn investment, targets 7,000 jobs The Federal Government has approved a new oil and gas free zone for Akwa Ibom State. The new free zone, which is jointly promoted by the Akwa Ibom State Government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and an American private equity investor, the Black Rhino Group, has already reported investment commitments worth more than $10 billion with the potential to create more than 7,000 long-term jobs. The free zone, named Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone, which is the largest in West Africa, sits on a physical land space measuring more than 50,000 hectares spread across six local government areas of Ikot Abasi, Eastern Obolo, Oruk Anam, Mkpat Enin, Onna and Ibeno. In a statement issued on the presidential declaration of the area as a free zone, the Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, who is the supervising minister for the nation’s free zones, described the project as “a game changer...