A subsidiary of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), Free Zone Global Investment Limited (FGIL), has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Axxela Limited, an energy solutions company, for a partnership to build power infrastructure for cheap and quality electricity supply to the Onne/Ikpokiri Free Zone in Rivers State.
FGIL is the investment arm of OGFZA while Axxela is Nigeria’s leading power and gas company. Specifics of the MoU show that FGIL and Axxela agreed to collaborate on feasibility studies, project funding, and other requirements for the delivery of the power solutions.
The MoU also indicates that though the power solutions project will kick off at the Onne/Ikpokiri Free Zone, other oil and gas free zones under the jurisdiction of OGFZA, such as Eko Support Free Zone in Lagos, are drawn in the project master plan.
At the signing ceremony in Abuja, the Chairman of the board of FGIL, Mr Umana Okon Umana, who is the Managing Director of OGFZA, the parent company to FGIL, said he was delighted that preliminary work on the project has started with the signing of the MoU, describing the event as “a milestone in the history of OGFZA.”
Umana projected that the power solutions initiative for the oil and gas free zones “will have a positive impact on the nation’s economy.”
He said besides the reputation of Axxela in the energy industry, the involvement of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the project as technical and legal consultants to FGIL was an added measure of confidence that the project would be delivered for the benefit of free zone enterprises and the nation.
The OGFZA managing director added that he was looking for to a timely delivery of the power project.
The Managing Director of Axxela, Bolaji Osunsanya, praised the professionalism of OGFZA in putting the project together, and described it as “a great enabler” potentially. Osunsanya said it was “exciting that the project is a private sector-led initiative.”
He said he would be looking to replicating the Onne experience in other oil and gas free zones under OGFZA.
The Onne/Ikpokiri Oil and Gas Free Zone, the flagship free zone under OGFZA, is one of the biggest in Africa.
Source: This Day
