Unlocking Aba Opportunities with SEZ to Double Nigeria’s GDP in a Decade

I enjoy moments in electronics labs. They are a big part of my weeks. I build and test circuits therein. My week is divided into three areas: advisory services (startups and corporations), electronics, and software.

For the electronics, I work on designs. Then we also have a big business with Intel Corporation as one of the two programmable microprocessor partners in continental Africa. Most times, it is reviewing designs from partners and helping on hardware descriptive coding. Then, we test for them. In this business, we control a lion’s share of the highly specialized market in Africa. I pioneered this sub-sector in Africa which I believe can grow further.

My proposal to grow the electronics sector in Nigeria is to make Aba a special economic zone (SEZ) where all products produced therein would not be taxable, unlocking local and global capital to rival China’s Shenzhen within decades. I see makers but they are subsistence; to become entrepreneurs, a redesign in the hardware sector would be catalytic. In my model, a SEZ would make that happen.

A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country’s national borders, and their aims include: increased trade, increased investment, job creation and effective administration. To encourage businesses to set up in the zone, financial policies are introduced. These policies typically regard investing, taxation, trading, quotas, customs and labour regulations. Additionally, companies may be offered tax holidays, where upon establishing in a zone they are granted a period of lower taxation.

Aba is a latent opportunity in Nigeria. Yes, it has a promise but it needs stimulation. In my book (winner of IGI Global Book of the Year) where I described how nations have developed microelectronics and nanotechnology, I posited that Nigeria needs new policies to accelerate microelectronics which typically drives other areas of technology. Yes, before Google, there must be Intel. Before the Facebook click, there must be Qualcomm microprocessor. Without microprocessors, there would not be modern civilization!

As Aba blossoms, private capital would build seaport in either Calabar or Akwa Ibom state. I am extremely confident that within a decade of making Aba a SEZ, Nigeria would double its GDP as it would serve Africa through the evolving continental treaty.

Some images from imaging experiments covering NDVI, RGB and NIR.

Comment from LinkedIn Feed

At this point, I think it won’t be a bad idea to run the numbers, to ascertain what it could cost to get the Aba SEZ up and running. Let the numbers cover minimum landmass, the basic amenities/infrastructures needed, manpower/skills availability or lack thereof; feasibility study, EIA, policy formulations, etc.

If we can put all of these in Naira or dollars, that would help us know exactly what we are looking for here, who to meet, and how to go about it. I am a realist, and I do not think all the money we have in this country will finish, if we are to bring this into being.

The policy of sharing money to the poor is highly defective, because it will never take anyone out of poverty, rather it increases dependency; and there will always be need to share more money.

For me, my idea of wealth creation would require making it possible, such that in a community of 1k inhabitants, if we can empower 10 entrepreneurs, they should be able to take care of the economic and social needs of the rest within that space. We cannot continue to waste money on things that are very difficult to predict their multiplier effects, and how majority of the people within the geographic space could participate and benefit from them.

Let’s go Nigeria!

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