Lagos Free Trade Zone and European Business Chamber begin talks about working together

LAGOS Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) officials and the European Business Chamber have begun talks aimed at exploring opportunities for opening up investment in a bid to spur economic development and regeneration.

Promoted by Singapore's Tolaram Group, the LFTZ covers an area of 830 hectares and is fully equipped with world-class infrastructure, a single clearance window for ease of doing business and integrated with the Lekki deep seaport.  With a focus on the ease of doing business, the LFTZ is the first private free trade Zone in Nigeria and is designed to provide investors with access to regional and international markets.

European Business Chamber is the organisation that represents the interests of top European companies in Nigeria and its president Adefolu Majekodunmi recently visited the LFTZ to examine the opportunities its presents. His delegation comprised of executives of several blue chip companies who expressed delight with the progress made by the LFTZ on infrastructure and the focus on improving the ease of doing business.

Mr Majekodunmi said: “My expectation moving forward is that we would see several of our organisations that visited today setting up their facilities within the Lagos free zone. We know that many of them have shown interest in it and I think the experience from today has solidified their decision and thought process towards that.”

LFTZ’s chief executive Dinesh Rathi described the zone as the next frontier and the best investment destination not only in Nigeria but also in the entire West African sub-region. He added that phase one of LFTZ would be completed by 2022, which he said would be marked by the commissioning of the Lekki Deep Sea Port.

Mr Rathi said: “We would leverage technology not only as an enabler but also as a differentiator. Lagos free zone would be a full-fledged digitally-enabled zone and we are currently working with a leading telecom and network solutions provider to connect the entire zone with a high-speed fibre optic network.”