By PRISCILIA BADUGU
A Belgian Group, Buck Consultants International is planning to stimulate and drive  investments into Nigerian Free trade zones.

The Group’s Director, Karel Varonye, who led a delegation to meet with the Minister of state for Trade and Investment, Dr Samuel Ortom in Abuja recently, said Nigeria’s free trade zones had a lot of untapped potentials.

He added that the conditions of the free zones were favorable to multiple foreign investments and business development.

“We are in this country to stimulate diverse investments into the country taking advantage of the huge potentials in Nigeria’s Free Trade Zones. Many of our clients worldwide have shown interest in Nigeria and that is why we are seeking the support of the Federal Government to start businesses there.”

Though, the licenses in your 23 free zones are untapped and the industrial parks too largely unused. We also need to ask ourselves why this is so and what can be done to make them receptive to enterprises that will bring development.” he said.

He also said: “Knowing fully well that Nigeria’s free trade zones are in competition with a hundreds of others around the world, efforts have been put in place to project our own and tell the world about the beneficial conditions, these are areas we feel we can come in

In his reaction, the minister spoke of the federal government’s willingness to give incentives and necessary support to the group, to aid their necessary plans and targeting investment as it will boost the economy and also create job opportunities, ensuring that local and international trade finds its feet. He also added that Nigeria is a virgin land for investment.

The ministry is responsible for attracting investment both locally and internationally,  Ortom added that Nigeria had a ready market with 160million  population to make any investment in the country a success.