Victor Ezeja
Guinness Nigeria Plc has made an investment worth over N3 billion in Edo State courtesy of reforms by the Godwin Obaseki-led administration which provides business-friendly environment.
The Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, John Mmsunga, disclosed this when he led members of the Board of Directors and other leadership of Guinness Nigeria Plc on a courtesy visit to the Government House, Benin City.
Mmsunga, who commended the governor for the business-friendly environment provided by the government, including adequate security and quality infrastructure, among others, said the reforms have boosted investors’ confidence, placing Edo as a safe haven for investments.
He said: “I am pleased to tell you that we have put in £4 million pounds and will be commissioning our new water treatment plant which will be ready in the next three or four weeks and we will like to invite you to the commissioning.
“The plant takes used factory water and recycles it to the point where you can drink it.
“I thank you for creating the environment that allowed us to continue investing in our facilities. In the last six years, we have seen infrastructure development around the State.”
“Recently, we went through the election cycle and we didn’t have destruction here in Benin. We are still able to produce and move our goods across the country from Benin with no major incidences which we anticipated and planned for but are glad didn’t happen.
“Our business has been very stable here in Benin and has given us the confidence to continue to invest as an investor here,” the Guinness managing director noted.
Giving assurance of the company’s continued investments in the state, Mmsunga said: “We will continue to invest in Benin because we are seeing that the environment here offers us the opportunity to do that. If we are not confident, we wouldn’t do it.
“We have a lot of investment projects that we like to undertake in Nigeria here in Benin and we would like to partner with you in some of these projects.”
Responding, Obaseki pledged that his government will sustain ongoing reforms and programmes across all sectors of the State in line with the Making Edo Great Again (MEGA) Agenda, ensuring the State is the best and safest place to live and do business.
“We are encouraging more people to come here and do business, while we focus and organize our key areas of attractiveness,” the governor stated.
“Edo is a transport hub. We are putting our transport master plan together to organize transportation better.
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“For agriculture, we are focusing on estate plans. In terms of capacity, we have EdoJobs training our young people on skills, particularly in areas of technology to support emerging businesses,” he added.
Obaseki further disclosed that his government aims to grow the GDP to a significant level over the next decade to be number one and be able to attract more investors, adding that companies like Guinness with presence already in the state would help in achieving that.
“We are also building our education system,” he continued, “to build capacity for now and the future. We have closed out on foundational education and are moving up to mid-school education, but more importantly, emphasizing TVET and that is one area I like to talk to you about because we have a school that we would like you to adopt.
“We would like to build a TVET center and would like kids to go there and get training to one day be senior engineers with you and the likes and would like to cooperate with you.”
“Other areas we would like to collaborate with you are in culture and tourism, cleaning, greening and beautifying the city and parks, and management of logistics,” Obaseki told the Guiness Plc members of the Board of Directors.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
