The leadership of Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA) has commended the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, for staying true to his promise of rebuilding Aba.
ACCIMA’s compliment to the Governor was paid through the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Aba Rejuvenation, Mr. Uche Ukeje, who was on a familiarisation visit to the commercial city, where he met with some select groups.
Ukeje, an architect, also met with the executives of Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPADA).
ACCIMA president Chief Jerry Kalu, ‘Osimiri,’ who spoke on behalf of his group, recounted Otti’s campaign promise to create a special vehicle for the comprehensive development of Aba and thanked the Governor for keeping that promise early on in his administration.
Kalu said making Aba work would be tantamount to making Abia state and the entire South East work.
The SSA thanked the Chamber for their continued faith in the city and promised to ensure that the state tops the chat in the ease of doing business index in Nigeria in the next 12 months.
He praised the resilience of the entrepreneurs, who he said had continued to base and grow their businesses in Aba in spite of infrastructural deficit and lack of support by previous administrations in the state.
Ukeje during his meeting with the ALPADA leadership told them that his visit was in keeping with Governor Otti’s promise to the good people of Aba to make the renewal and redevelopment of the city a top priority of his administration.
He said that the present government would not only address the current infrastructural shortfalls, but would create a Masterplan, to guide the development of the city for the next 30 years.
Some of the challenges identified by the landlords include, lack of access roads into and within the city, indiscriminate location of markets and motor parks, lack of drainages, ineffective waste management plan, lack of portable water and other basic amenities and insecurity. They also identified some of the roads they would like to see the administration rebuild.
Ukeje thanked the Landlords and informed them that Dr. Otti is passionate about redeveloping Aba into one of the most modern commercial and industrial cities in the world and sought their cooperation and support.