European businesses are exploring opportunities at Lagos Free Zone as their investment destination in Nigeria. This was disclosed by the President, European Business Chambers (EuroCham), Mr. Adefolu Majekodunmi during a visit by a high-powered delegation to the zone on Tuesday, June 15,2021. EuroCham is the organization that represents the interests of leading European companies operating in Nigeria.
The delegation comprised c-suite executives from some of the top European companies in Nigeria. They expressed their delight with the real progress made by Lagos Free Zone on ground, its plans for infrastructure and the focus on enhancing the Ease of Doing Business for its investors, which they said is a major attraction for Europeans organizations.
Majekodunmi explained that the purpose of the visit to the Lagos Free Zone was to explore the opportunities for European companies to simplify their investments and operations in Nigeria.
“My expectation moving forward is that we would see several of our organizations that visited today setting up their facilities within the Lagos Free Zone. We do know that many of them have already shown interest in doing this and I think the experience from today has solidified their decision and thought process to make the move to set up a base in the Lagos Free Zone. It has been a very worthwhile experience for EuroCham and its members,” he said.
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Delivering his remarks to the delegation during the visit, the Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Free Zone (LFZ), Mr Dinesh Rathi described the zone as the next frontier and the best investment destination not only in Nigeria but also in the entire West African sub-region.
Rathi disclosed that phase one of the Lagos Free Zone, which covers about 45 per cent of the 830 hectares area, will be completed by the year 2022. He declared that the completion of phase one of the zone would be marked by the completion of the Lekki Deep Sea Port, scheduled to commence its operations next year.
Responding to questions from members of Eurocham on the plan for digitization in line with the current global realities, Rathi explained that the process flows within the zone are being set out as a modern smart city leveraging on the latest technologies.
“We would leverage technology not only as an enabler but also as a differentiator. Lagos Free Zone would be a full-fledged digitally enabled zone. We are currently working with a leading telecom and network solutions provider to connect the entire zone with high-speed fibre optic network,” he said.
Giving a testimonial on the competitive advantage of Lagos Free Zone, Mr Taiwo Ilesanmi (Managing Director, BASF Operations LFTZ Enterprise) revealed that their experience has been impressive in the last two years of the company’s operations in the zone.
“The Lagos Free Zone team have been very supportive, they extended their full assistance to guide us through the process of setting up our facility and they have also been constantly available to help us resolve any operational issues that arise, efficiently and amicably.” he said.
