By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsur Olowoopejo
AGAINST the backdrop of erratic power supply  in the country, the Federal Government, weekend, has again promised that by this December, there will be stable power supply.

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, who said this in Lagos, weekend,  assured that “by December, there will be stability in the availability of electricity in Nigeria.”

Martins-Kuye stated this when he inspected the Lekki Free Trade Zone,  LFTZ. He was accompanied by the Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Prince Adeniyi Oyemade and the Special Adviser to the Governor, Mrs. Sola Oworu.

Kuye said substantial progress is made daily by the Federal Government to ensure that the problem of power supply become settled.

According to him:  “During the process, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, with the support of the FG made an agreement on a pricing regime which is fairly satisfactory to those who will make the gas available.”

He noted that the availability of power supply in the country will also help to combat some of the challenges purported to be faced by LFTZ and other free trade zones, FTZ, in the country, adding “I appreciate the fact that any economy runs better on sound infrastructure because it is the infrastructure that drives the economy of a nation.”

While commenting on the achievement of the zone, Kuye said “LFTZ is a different kind of FTZ in the country; it is not without course that a lot of people in Nigeria are already referring to LFTZ as the prosperity corridor of West Africa.”

The minister reassured Lagos residents that the FG was irrevocable committed to the success of LFTZ because if something like this is possible in South Africa, it is also possible in Nigeria also.

He added that as the FG is striving hard to ensure that the project becomes a reality, the state government, individuals must be one hundred per cent committed to the project.

His words: “I want to say that the policy of the Federal Government on FTZ stands and remain. We gain a lot of benefit from LFTZ.”

Speaking on the benefit that the country will benefit from the zone, Oworu said “LFTZ will encourage manufacturing in the state because the state remains the commercial hub of the country.”

“The zone will help to create employment for the people and ensure that our investors transfer the knowledge to the Nigerians. It will also assist the country in the area of capacity building as ideas and skills will be exchanged from the investors to Nigerians.” she said.

The Special Adviser noted that the area will also have international airport and seaport which will further help to developed in the area.

Oworu assured that other world infrastructures are in place at the zone for the benefit of the manufacturers

“At present, there are 68 prospective investors who are willing to participate and are willing to come into the zone, while some of them have paid some money to the coffers of the state government which has made us to work quicker and faster with our partners to put the relevant infrastructures in place and that is largely the network of roads, power supply and the port.”

Also speaking, the managing Director of LFTZ, Mr. Adeyemo Thompson said “Our 2010 marketing plan for 2010 include the showcasing of the benefit in the zone at the upcoming investment forum in July and will also do the same in the Shanghai expo that will be holding in China.”

“By November we will have enough on ground to do the a lunching ceremony of the zone and our intension is that by then we will have at least two investors on operational within the zone in the zone”