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Germany is aggressively pursuing an economic renaissance in Enugu State, focusing on transformative sectors such as agriculture, energy, trade, and investment. This initiative promises to catapult the region onto the global stage and foster a new era of prosperity and collaboration.
Enugu State has solidified its position as a magnet for investment in southern Nigeria, with a leading industrial player selecting the state as a strategic location for its business and investment ventures.
This decision is a direct result of the state’s significant strides in enhancing its ease of doing business under Governor Peter Mbah’s administration, a development that has garnered widespread recognition from the Nigerian media.
Governor Peter Mbah welcomed a German delegation to Government House, Enugu, as the European nation seeks to bolster its engagement with Enugu State.
Led by Consul General Weert Börner, the team included stakeholders from the German business sector and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), who came to discuss potential partnerships and mutual interests.
“So, I am very happy to be here in Enugu city to increase and deepen our conversation on this cooperation. I am also very happy that the delegation with me is comprised of representatives of the DHK (Deutsche Handels Kompetenz), which is our chamber in Lagos for industry and commerce; GIZ, our international cooperation agency and Siemens Energy, a private company that is already doing a lot in Nigeria to improve electricity and energy sector.
“We get a lot of news by the Nigerian media and through our own office that Enugu State and its own government have improved a lot in the sense of structuring process to get business easier done to improve the infrastructural basis for joint engagement.
“We are actually very happy about this development. The German government decided to concentrate more on specific states within the Nigerian federal system. And those states from the south are Ogun, Abia, and Enugu State. So, this is why I am here to get our cooperation on a higher and more intense level,” the envoy stated.
Governor Peter Mbah expressed his gratitude to the German delegation for selecting Enugu State as a preferred economic partner, and assured them of his administration’s unwavering commitment to fostering a strong partnership with the German government and business community.
Mbah confidently stated that his administration’s $30 billion GDP goal, although lofty, is achievable through a combination of private sector investment and global cooperation. He emphasized that Nigeria’s economic revitalization must originate from the states, rather than relying solely on federal initiatives.
“I want to put on record our deep appreciation to you for selecting Enugu as one of the three southern states you want to partner with. We are really excited about this essentially because though we are subnational, our ambition and the goals we have set for ourselves are national in scale.
“We plan to grow the economy to a point that is unprecedented. If you look at the target, we set for ourselves to grow the economy from $4.4bn to $30bn in the next seven years. It appears too ambitious because you are talking about a sevenfold growth and you are looking at a compounded annual growth rate of 27 per cent, but we think it is realisable because we are looking at unlocking a lot of the economic potentials of the state that have not been touched,” he said.
