Chief Ozo Ugwu, President of 9th-Mile Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (9CCIMA), says the body is poised to bolster sustainable economic growth in Enugu State and beyond.
Ugwu told journalists on Sunday at 9th-Mile Corner, Enugu, that the new City Chamber would be an industrial hub set to redefine the economy of the state.
He noted that the Chamber would open up businesses in the state as 9th-Mile is a gateway to the entire South-East geo-political zone.
According to him, 9th-Mile will soon be a big industrial park where there will be a pool of graduates that would be trained in anti-ICT crime, adding that they will partner with Enugu State Government with a view to adding value to the system.
Ugwu said: “The 9th-Mile Chamber of Commerce will partner with industrialists and entrepreneurs in Enugu West Senatorial Zone to bolster sustainable economic growth in the area.
“The Chamber’s cardinal objective is to promote entrepreneurs and businesses in the zone, in the state, and the country at large through business and commerce support.
“Today, we have three City Chambers in Enugu State, namely; 9th-Mile Chamber, Nsukka Chamber and the Awgu Chamber.
“But of all these, we believe that 9th-Mile Chamber purposely serves and have what it takes, just because by nature, 9th-Mile is positioned to be the Gateway to the entire South-East in terms of commerce and industry,” he said.
The Chamber boss said that the 9th-Mile area is blessed with a free trade zone, which was commissioned in 2022, adding that the 9th-Mile Chamber of Commerce is blessed naturally and infrastructurally.
He noted that the area is blessed naturally with a water basin that cannot be equalled to any water in West Africa, adding: “This is why all the beverage industries are rushing to be at 9th-Mile axis of Enugu State.”
“You can name them: the Nigerian Breweries, The 7up and all other water bottle companies like the Mbaka and co, from Ugwu Onyeama down to 9th Mile, you cannot count the number of water industries that have come to be.
“You think of other infrastructure development, you think of access roads. These roads goes to the North, it goes to the East into Enugu. It goes to the South West and to the South-South and that is why it is called ‘Gateway’ to the South-East.
“With the coming of 9th-Mile Chamber, we have come to harness all these private sector-government inter-relationships to have flourishing ease of doing business.
“We want to build up 9th-Mile the way it should be. Like Lagos, you cannot know boundary of the city centres and the rural centres as they all came to be fused into one,” Ugwu said. (NAN)
