How Ikpeazu pushes Aba brand
Over the years, Aba has always been known as a hub of production. So , when Governor Okezie Ikpeazuled administration came on board, it recognised that the city needed just a push to enable it to diversify and grow the state’s economy. This led to the MadeIn-aba campaign.
In drafting the ‘five pillars’ of his economic blueprint, Ikpeazu, in conjunction with his economic team, considered those economic activities that the people of the state did better than others in Nigeria, those things that the state had both comparative and competitive advantages over other states. Trade and commerce were two of those activities.
Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, has the largest population of any city in the South-east/south regions of Nigeria and it is the commercial hub of the regions. Its industrial prowess could be seen in the production of finished leather goods-shoes, belt and bags, garments, steel works, plastics, paints, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The city’s Ariaria International Market is one of the biggest markets in Nigeria and West African sub-region and attracts patrons from the West Coast and Central Africa.
It is, however, the governor’s belief that trade and commerce cannot thrive in the absence of infrastructure, including good road network and security, which serve as enablers to economic development.
Consequently, the state government is investing in infrastructure, especially roads and security, to open up the state and make it safe for investment.
And in doing roads, the Ikpeazu-led administration,
also built roads that could outlive his administration.
The Made-in-aba campaign has so far attracted over N3 billion in direct orders into Aba, while ensuring the employment of about one million new employees and apprentices in the markets around the state.
Recall that the Nigeria military ordered 50,000 pairs of boots, which was made in Aba and recently, the Gambian Government has also ordered that their country’s military boots be made in Aba. This is after a visit to Gambia by Governor Ikpeazu and shoemakers in Aba.
The Abia State governor observed that the Made-in Aba campaign has opened new doors of opportunities for www.businessday.ng producers in Aba, the state’s commercial hub.
For Sam Hart, senior special adviser to Abia State Governor on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSMES), the ongoing campaign on Madein-aba goods is geared towards rebranding Aba to improve quality of goods and ensure that artisans gain confidence in embossing their logos on their products, rather than use foreign names to identify their products.
“Aba needed to be rebranded, because Made-in-aba at a point was synonymous with fakeness. You’ll see Gucci with one C, you’ll see Prada with O, Prado. So, we had to ensure that they took identities of their products and we started rebranding Made-in-aba.
“To boost confidence of the artisans, the governor from his swearing-in till date, everything he has worn has been Madein-aba.
“So, that gave the artisans confidence. He took their products to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. I led a delegation to Senate President Bukola Saraki and we took these products to influencers and they were proud to wear them.
“Aba is no longer known for fakeness. People are now proud to emboss made-in Aba labels on their products. They now own their products”.
He, however, decried informal export, which goes on in Aba and urged artisans https://www.facebook.com/businessdayng @Businessdayng to formalise their businesses by registering with relevant government agencies to boost their businesses.
In his words, “What has not worked in Aba is the formalisation of our efforts. A lot of Aba exports are still informal. Federal Government agencies’ approach to Aba has been more of revenue generation, than trade facilitation approach”.
He appealed to agencies like the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control
@Businessdayng (NAFDAC) to help the artisans to improve the quality of their products.
“If NAFDAC, SON and NEPC are coming to ask for licensing fees, how much is the man making to pay all those bills? So, the bulk of our exports are still informal, thank God for what PDF 11 has done to get accurate data. Nobody has the accurate number of our export volume, because nobody has been able to get them together, because of fear that it would be taxed exorbitantly,” he said.