By VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA — GOVERNOR Peter Obi has said the manufacturing sector holds the key to a permanent solution to the challenges of employment in the country.

Speaking during a visit to a new multi -million factory being constructed at the famous Harbour Industrial Layout at Ogbaru near the commercial city of Onitsha, Obi said the resuscitation of industrial estates in the state remained one of the priorities of his administration.

According to the governor, Anambra State had keyed into President Goodluck Jonathan’s vision of creating employment, noting that the state had continued to encourage and empower industrialists as a matter of deliberate policy.

He informed the people that some of the industries established in the state would be commissioned by the president during his visit to the state later this month and expressed satisfaction that small and medium scale enterprises were getting access to credit facilities at less than ten per cent interest rate which, he added, would encourage them to grow.

Chairman of the company, Chief Oranu Chidume, in his speech, expressed gratitude to the governor for the massive reconstruction of deplorable roads in the industrial layout, recalling that bad roads held industrialists in the area hostage for many years.