From Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
ABIA State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has brokered a $1.5billion business deal for the establishment of a shoe industry in Aba, which will produce 5,000 shoes per day and employ about 10,000 people.
Ikpeazu secured the agreement for the business deal during a meeting with Mr. Zhang Huarong, Chairman of Huajian Group in the course of his official visit to China for the first Nigeria-China Governors Investment Forum.
The Abia-Huajian Shoe Industrial City will be located in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State.
The state government will provide the land and other investment incentives for the project while the Huajian Group will fund the entire project.
Huarong, who noted that Governor Ikpeazu was the first Nigerian leader to visit him, disclosed that the group was already employing 6,000 staff and is currently developing a 250 acre industrial city in Ethiopia and expressed his eagerness to come to Nigeria.
Huajian Group currently employs about 20,000 staff in China and operates a 10,000 shoes per day factory in Dongguan, valued at $2billion.
Huarong assured that he would visit the governor in Abia before the end of the month for further discussion on the project.