By Levinus Nwabughiogu

Indeed, anyone who has heard of or visited Aba would swiftly attest to the ingenuity and creative sense of the people. Aba is a home for crafts and fabrications of about anything.

In fact, call it the Japan of Africa, the commercial hub of Nigeria and the real eastern heartland, you would only be stating the obvious.

So, determined to give the people nothing but the best, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu travelled to Turkey four months after assuming office as the governor of Abia State.

While in Istanbul, the country’s capital, he kept his mind focused on the task, interacting with the Turkish government and the business community. Turkey and Abia share some commonality in garment, textile and shoe-making revolution.

The only challenge in Abia’s case was the lack of facilities for bumper output. But then, you still can’t but commend the resilience of Aba people who have continued to churn out tons and tons of assorted wears, brands and trademarks to the chagrin of their competitors at the global arena.

•Gov Okezie Ikpeazu and the Turkish Ambassador flanked by the three senators from Abia at the occassion

Meanwhile, precisely one year after the visit of the governor to the European country, Abia State and Turkish government have sealed a deal.

The deal, formalized at a brief ceremony held at the Turkish embassy in Abuja, on Tuesday, would see, the training of over 50,000 shoe, dress makers as well as other artisans from Abia.

By this investment pact, large capacity output machines and equipment would be shipped in to Abia for immediate take off of production.

This is in addition to the promise by the foreign government to inject millions of dollars in various areas of the state economy.

The target of this business move, according to the Abia government, is to boost the manufacturing and industrial base of the state.

It said it would not only create jobs for youths but also boost the production and delivery of made-in-Nigeria products across the global.

Why partnering with Turkey?
Speaking at the ceremony,Ikpeazu said that the partnership was sequel to his business trip to Istanbul in September last year.

“I thank the Turkish embassy to allow Abia to be a trail blazer once again. In September last year, I embarked on my first journey to Turkey. We feel that the best thing was to begin to learn from Turkey. Abia and Turkey have so many things in common. We have over 50,000 shoe makers. We believe that our people can learn so from the Turkish experience in making beautiful shoes and dresses.

“So, in our decision to drive five pillars of development especially Small and Medium scale enterprise, we find out that Turkey had a similar trajectory in terms of their machine, tools because they were able to produce machines that could service the equipment they were using in their factories and the economy is also built strong on the small and medium scale enterprise as a catalyst for rapid economic development. It would have been too fast for us to go to well established economies like Germany, America and all that.

“But we felt that Turkey had a growing experience taken a bit from Russia and Germany. The outcome in Turkey; solid equipment, solid infrastructure base and then flourishing output in terms of beautiful and wonderful products especially as it concerns garments and leather works.

“Our emphasis in Abia is also on garment and leather works. That naturally took us to Turkey and we believe strongly that there is a lot for us to learn as a growing economy in Abia from Turkey.”

The impact of the business deal
Ikpeazu also expressed optimism that the result of the partnership would be seen almost immediately.

Why we partner Nigeria, Abia-Turkish Ambassador
Meanwhile, speaking at the event, the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Hakan Cakil, appreciated the  Nigerian business climate, saying it would be in the interest of both countries to cooperate. He lauded the initiative between his country and Abia government, hoping that it would bear fruits.

“We are doing our best to encourage Turkish business investment in Nigeria. Nigeria is a very important country. We are making excellent cooperation,”the envoy stated. The meeting attracted the presence of the three senators representing Abia State at the Senate, Abia government officials and members of Turkish business community.