Peace Mass car Assembly plants Enugu

Guys can we review this interview granted by the President Enugu Diaspora Organisation. He clearly captured all we have discussed and been discussing both on this thread and other Igbo development thread/fora online and offline.
Dr Ayobanna Ikeanumba[/b], [/b][/b]president of the Enugu Diaspora Organisation (EDO), in this interview with REGIS ANUKWUOJI, explains the organisation’s plan to revitalise moribund companies in the state; the group’s 70,000-book donation to IMT, among other issues. Excerpts:
 What does Enugu Diaspora Organisation mean?
It is an association of Enugu people (Ndi Enugu) to start with; secondly it is the coordinating organisation of all Enugu associations all over the world. Though they are not our branches or chapters, we all work together for the overall development of the state. We have Enugu U.S.A with more 15,000 registered members, Enugu Malaysia, Enugu UK, Enugu Ireland, South Africa, Enugu Germany, Enugu Italy, Enugu Brazil, Enugu Spain and many others. There are over 68 known and registered Enugu associations all over the world with a combined population of 219,000 members.
My organisation works hand-in-hand with all these associations to bring about development in Enugu State. The real process of coordination and co-operation has been triggered and has taken off. The result is now showing. We also work very closely with the state government, through many of her departments but especially the office of the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Diaspora Matters.
In other words, we have many members all over the world, some are here in Enugu and in other parts of Nigeria, because for you to be a member of our organisation, you must have lived or still live overseas, and you must be somebody with vested interest in the Diaspora. In funding our projects, we raise funds through our members, other persons and agencies that believe in what we do. We do not raise funds for keeping; we target projects, get the funds and do the project. We are a project driven organisation purely aiming to invest in critical sectors of the economy of Enugu State. We do charity but it’s not our motivation, our motivation is to get profit in what we do and in turn, use part of the profit to do charity. Profit first before charity.
 May we know some of the critical sectors of the economy you have affected or intend to work in?
Actually, when I came on board to lead the organisation, I had to take concrete steps to change the narrative of the organisation; before now it functioned as a beggarly organisation, moving cap in hand, looking for people to donate funds for charity work. In the days we live, things should not really work like that. You make profit before you do charity. Charity costs money. This is our method as I have said earlier.
We are mindful of what we do, so we don’t cross the moral line. To answer your question, we have three critical areas we want to achieve in the shortest possible time. We made these promises to our people and we must deliver.
First is to facilitate to build a Diaspora Estate in Enugu for our members and other persons who might be interested. Second is the Diaspora Library Project and third is the Diaspora Fund Project. These three critical areas are achievable and we must achieve them in order of achievability.
The Diaspora estate was embarked upon to challenge the frustration of our members who have tried but failed over the years to get genuine real estate in Enugu. Sometimes these people run into trouble when they send funds home to their relations and contractors to acquire real estate for them. The funds are either mismanaged or out-rightly stolen, with little or no consequences. In order to check this, as an organisation, we are moving fast to acquire land in partnership with communities or land owners in Enugu, develop the infrastructure through complex technical partnerships and then avail it to our members at affordable options. At the moment, we are working with the Enugu State Housing Development Corporation in a particular estate of theirs with 140 serviced plots of land along the Enugu Port-Harcourt Express Way. They call it Rangers Estate. We call it Rangers Diaspora Village.
This is genuine and straight. As we speak, our members are fast acquiring the plots and are starting full development. At the rate of N7m per plot including full infrastructure, you cannot get it cheaper anywhere of such location in Enugu. This is the foreign direct investment I am talking about- simple and direct. Seven million naira for 140 units is a lot of money and our members are doing it. This fund is coming direct into Enugu and it is changing gradually the economic indices of the stakeholders. Gradually we are getting somewhere promising. We aim to get at least 1,000 of such plots in the next 24 months for our members.
The interesting thing is that people are bringing money home and the multiple effect is there to see; when people bring money effectively in such orderly manner as we are doing now, you will find out that the impact on the economy of the state will be felt in the immediate and extend workers’ remuneration in increments- the traders who supply building materials, the architects who are producing drawings, different types of engineers, even government agencies that approve some of the work, get paid- all have impacts. By this we have and will continue to create a huge market for our people and the state- money from Enugu people for Enugu people.
 We have advanced in the library project. At the moment, we have signed a collaboration agreement with IMT Enugu to re-stock her library.
We have engaged and are relying on our partner associations in the USA and UK to achieve this. In response, they are sending, as we speak 70,000 books to be delivered to IMT. This is unprecedented, especially as the books are coming through direct funding, entirely by our members and partners. Surely, by the end of August this year the batches will start arriving Enugu, sorted and delivered to the school. These are contemporary, purely academic and brand new books, valued at more than N140million. We approached other schools in Enugu, including ESUT but IMT has shown commitment and passion. The rector, Prof. Nweze and his team are people of great character, desirous to do things differently. In order to avoid the pitfalls of the past, we have signed a five year collaboration agreement with the school, to ensure total compliance and usage of the materials for the best interest of the students. This will ensure the books are not diverted or sold by some elements in the school.
In addition to this, we are already in touch with some Enugu indigenes who are lecturers overseas, to assist IMT as academic partners or resource persons. They will assist the school in areas of teaching and research and will also be on hand to assist the lecturers in oversea academic pursuit. So, things are looking good for the school with EDO.
On the Diaspora fund, not in the sense of CBN Diaspora fund programmes, we want to do what we have to do to encourage our people to pool their funds and do something in the state. For instance, we are aiming to invest directly in some critical infrastructures and establishments that are not functioning well at the moment in Enugu- the international conference center, Enugu water Corporation, Enugu Waste Management Authority and others- these establishments are functioning far below expectation. In getting involved, we are currently working in collaboration with all our people in every part of the world to create a pool of funds to get these places to work better. Mechanisms have been activated to raise $500 million of direct funding in the next ten years to achieve this.
It is not impossible to deliver pipe borne water to every home in Enugu. There are millions of persons in Enugu city that need water daily. Statistically, there are about three million persons living in the city with an average daily water usage of ten litres. Our plan will provide good water to this mass of people at minimal fee. This is not rocket science, its common sense.
Water can flow to anywhere, so long as there are pipes and pressure. So the idea of water reaching a part of the city and not reaching the other is strange and dubious. Giving three million persons good water daily at a small fee N5/liter is achievable in Enugu. This will make money for our people, the state and every other person that is involved.
We are also taking aim at the Presidential Hotel, Nike Lake Resort Hotels, Enugu Waste Management Agency, Premier Cashew Limited and plenty other such establishments that have defied redemption. EDO will redeem them and bring them to profitability. We are not unaware of the legal and many other challenges facing these great establishments but we will navigate them out of the woods. We have advanced discussion with reputable globally acclaimed fund manager to handle this project.
Apart the three projects which you have explained, is your organisation thinking of attracting foreign investors into Enugu that will go into manufacturing?
What we intend to do is not necessarily to go scouting for foreign investors as in the common sense of it but foreign-based Enugu investors. Surely we are going to have both local and foreign technical partners in handling a venture of this kind of Diaspora fund project but we are not losing sight of what we want to achieve in the end.
In order to get it right, one needs to know some of the key challenges that might face investors coming into this part of the country. My personal experience tells me that investment partners prefer to land in Lagos and do their businesses there and leave with ease, because they see Lagos as an investor friendly state. They do not see Lagos as other Nigerian states that are always marred in unnecessary bureaucracy and mundane interferences in peoples businesses by government and government persons. Investors don’t like things like that; they will want to know if there are five star hotel brands in the locality like Protea, Southern Sun, Sun International, Marriot etc. They will want to know the safety
of their lives and properties. Big investors want to be safe where ever they go. Enugu for instance, does not have a four star hotel or direct flight to any other country except Ethiopia. How can you command investor respect with such a situation? It is hard if you ask me. Therefore reasonable and profound investors will hardly put huge sums of money in such a place. They would rather prefer to put it in Lagos, where they know they simply get down at Ikeja and fly away and the government won’t truncate their investments. This is why Lagos state is doing everything it can to maintain the mini Nigeria status it has acquired for herself. Nothing goes for free there; you pay for everything and the government makes money to meet the needs of the people- good infrastructure, good services, smart administration and global partnerships. Lagos works like business, it does not work like normal government establishments in Nigeria. I used this as a case study because I have the experiences of many states in Nigeria, including Enugu, with painful consequences. Enugu must begin to run like business for it to be prosperous.
The state cannot run well with the small allocation from the Federal Government or the small N2billion monthly IGR it generates and expect industrialisation and economic explosion, no, the administrators of the state must start thinking outside the box and take nothing for granted. You can’t have a crop of people tagged with no track record of business and administrative achievements to run a state and expect prosperity.
It’s a square hole and must have square peg, nothing more nothing less. We must do away with mediocres and get tested hands to get things going. Political patronage should not be for the business of the state. China and South Africa are good examples, where investors businesses don’t marry with politics. Enugu is capable of borrowing some ideas from these places. EDO is leading the way.
The entire South East Nigeria must get to work. What on earth is wrong with the governments of this part of Nigeria? No single five star hotel in a region with the largest number of billionaires in black Africa.
No direct flights from a region that controls trade and commerce of Nigeria with daily trading volume of little over $US1b. What is wrong? The question can go on and on but the answer lies with us. We must have direct flights from the entire South East of Nigeria to America, South Africa, China, Japan and other countries where our people are trading; this is an area of our strength in the Nigeria formation, we control almost 100percent of the trading capacity of this nation both formal and informal, yet we have not strategically used this to any advantage.
The last I checked, a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet costs US$239m. This is no money for Igbo billionaires, of which we have plenty. What stops ten of them from pooling resources and get this airplane? Perhaps they don’t know it’s possible; someone should tell them. What they need do is pool funds together, buy the plane and lease to a reputable global brand like South African Airways, Virgin, even KLM to fly our people right from Enugu to Johannesburg, London, Europe, China etc. This is what we need. This is what we can do. They can even consider a smaller plane like the Boeing 777. Enugu cannot handle Airbus, so it’s out of the picture. Whatever Ethiopian Airlines are doing to lift from Enugu, every other airline should be encouraged to do the same. South East governments should step in here. There are plenty things these guys can do to shoot Igbo land to the global stage without talking too much. My organisation must get Enugu going in this direction within the time frame we have set for ourselves.Ayobanna Ikeanumba, president of the Enugu Diaspora Organisation (EDO), in this interview with REGIS ANUKWUOJI, explains the organisation’s plan to revitalise moribund companies in the state; the group’s 70,000-book donation to IMT, among other issues. Excerpts:
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horsepower101:


Good point but that still doesn’t explain the fact the inner streets are tarred. Are you trying to tell me that they tarred it back in the 50s and 60s and it has remained intact since then.

I am asking this very important question because we need to find out their secret. How was Enugu government able to afford to tar most inner streets when other igbo states are struggling to do the same?

The answer to this question will solve so many mysteries.

The answer to your question is simple.....
Enugu State government has been doing all this because Enugu State is in the hands of God.
Enugu is not a lucky State
we are a blessed State.

Digitron:
ikem - Ehamufu road

nice one from his Excellency.
Enugu is truly in the hands of God.

spyder880:

If we can call Nsukka and environs rural areas, then its a true statement.
I will be in Nsukka before month end.

Spyder you promised to upload more pictures from nsukka...we are waiting

OyiboUgbo04:
The new face of the popular Miliken Hill road, Ngwo, Enugu

For more pictures
http://easternreporter.com/2018/07/05/the-new-face-of-the-popular-miliken-hill-road-ngwo-enugu/

Enugu is getting there..