Following its announcement last year that it intends to invest
$1 billion in Nigeria, General Electric (GE) has scheduled the groundbreaking
for its $250 million manufacturing and assembly plant in Calabar.
The ceremony will be performed by Vice President Namadi Sambo.
When completed in the next three years, the facility will be
the biggest in Africa and will have an additional operating expenditure of
about $1 billion in the next ten years.
Besides, it intends to make Calabar the hub of its
manufacturing activities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Expectedly, Calabar is agog with various activities just as
economists have been listing the impacts GE’s arrival will have on the economy
of Cross River State in particular and Nigeria as a whole.
Ndem Ayara, the Economic Adviser to Cross River State
Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, said, “The biggest infrastructure gap we have is
in the energy sub-sector. The expectation is that they are coming to close that
gap between energy that is available and the energy we need.
They are going to provide energy that will support other
sectors of the economy.” Ayara said apart from creating employment opportunities
by stimulating investments in other sectors of the economy, thus creating a
multiplier effect, Cross River as the host state will become the cashment area
or primary beneficiary of direct employment from GE.
Speaking in a similar vein, the head of Cross River State
Investment Bureau, Mr. Gerald Ada said “the investment by GE will add
approximately 2500 skilled jobs and several unskilled jobs in the supply and
distribution chain.
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