Lekki FTZ to Engage 600,000 Workers

• Lekki FTZ to Engage 600,000 Workers

Between 500,000 and 600,000 skilled personnel will be needed to work in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in the next two or three years, the Managing Director, Lekki Free Trade Zone Development Company, Mr. Abiodun Dabiri, has said.

He added that already, there was a huge demand for real estate, financial and utility services.

Dabiri said that there were 19 manufacturing firms operating in the zone, adding that most of them were attracted to the activities of the Dangote refinery manufacturing products needed by the refinery.

“In the next two to three years, aggregate skill demand from all the firms in the zone will be from 500,000 to 600,000 people,” he said.

According to him, total investment in infrastructure by the Lagos State Government and private investors in the zone between 2014 and 2017 is $333m while the total value of export from the zone in 2014 was N18.9bn.

He said, “The total value of foreign direct investment in the zone is $125m; the total investment in infrastructure by the Lekki FTZ covering roads, power and others is $208m.”

Also speaking, the Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, who represented the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, stated that the state’s infrastructure overhaul especially over the past two years was aimed at enhancing business prosperity and accelerating industrial revitalisation.

The governor said in addition to new roads, bridges and overhaul of the waterways, the state had channelised four new commercial ferry routes on its waterways and commenced the process of generating 3,000 megawatts of embedded power to increase power generation in the state.