A Chinese multinational company, Shandong Ruyi Technology Group, is set to invest $600 mn in the textile and garment industry in Kano State. Already, talks between officials of the company and the Kano State Investment Promotion Agency had reached an advanced stage.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the investment between the two parties, would be signed in the next few months. The agency’s Chairman, AlhajiIsyaku Umar Tofa, made this known during the presentation of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) to two investors, by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, at the Government House in Kano. “We are about concluding talks with them and they were encouraged by the commitment of the Ganduje administration to provide tax incentives as well as free land for their huge investment,” he stated.
Tofa further revealed that government would give out free land to two companies, Black Rhino/ Dangote Group to construct a 100 megawatt solar power plant, at a cost of $150 mn and St. Meer International Investment and Management Company which would invest $120 mn to finance a similar project in the State.
Presenting the Certificates of Occupancy to the two investors, Ganduje said the decision to give them 207 hectares and 152.3 hectares respectively, for free, was part of effort at engendering competition and attracting foreign direct investment.“It is in our interest to encourage investment in areas which have potential multiplier effects on the growth of the economy, including employment generation. The two companies would generate solar power that would help in addressing the State’s energy deficiency.
“We are willing to remove any stumbling blocks towards the success of your investments because of benefits that will come to our state,” the governor stressed. Ganduje maintained that his administration decided to engage an industrialist as Chairman of the State Investment Promotion Agency in addition to actively involving representatives of what he called “the main industrial blocs in the State,” to hasten attainment of its desire to reposition the economy of the State.
