Ogun State is intensifying efforts to attract investment and deepen trade through bold initiatives, Governor Dapo Abiodun told the international community in Algiers, the Algerian capital, yesterday.
The governor participated in a high-level panel session titled “Investment Showcase: Unveiling Opportunities from Select African and Caribbean Sub-Sovereigns” at the ongoing IATF25.
Reaffirming Ogun’s position as Nigeria’s preferred destination for investors, Abiodun emphasized the crucial role of subnationals in ensuring the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area. He observed that despite Africa’s vast potential, intra-continental trade accounts for only about 15 percent of overall trade, hindered by poor infrastructure, cumbersome regulations, and fragmented value chains.
He outlined Ogun’s economic transformation blueprint, which includes multi-modal infrastructure development, the Gateway International Cargo Airport, Ijebu-Ode and Kajola Dry Ports, over 1,200 kilometres of upgraded roads, and expanded gas reticulation networks.
Abiodun also listed development clusters and free trade zones such as the Remo Economic Development Cluster anchored by the newly licensed Gateway International Airport, the Ijebu Economic Development Cluster with its proximity to the Dangote Refinery and Agro-Allied Industries, the Agbara Industrial Cluster, the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone, and several other hubs designed to support co-location, shared utilities, and value-chain optimization.
He added that processes for investors have been simplified through the One-Stop Investment Center (OgunInvest) and a GIS-enabled Land Bank covering 300,000 hectares of pre-verified land, which enables faster permits, titles, and approvals.
According to the governor, key attractions include policy certainty with frameworks under the 2019 Public-Private Partnership Law, risk-sharing partnerships with the Africa Development Bank and IFAD, structured government-industry dialogue, and Ogun’s strategic location with access to Lagos ports, ECOWAS markets, and the Benin Republic border.
With these interventions, Abiodun noted, Ogun has positioned itself as Nigeria’s foremost AfCFTA hub, where scale, speed, and certainty converge to unlock shared prosperity for Africa.
