The new managing director of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), Umana Okon Umana has toured the Onne Free trade Zone and assured investors of government’s readiness to retain incentives that have been put in place to attract investment in free zones.
He assured the major investors of the zone and pledged to create the enabling environment for Brawal, a free zone developer, and Indorama, a free zone investor, to optimize return on their investments.
According to him, part of government incentives for OGFZA’s support for free zone businesses include unflagging implementation of the policy on ease of doing business, enhanced in part by the one-stop-shop concept in force in the free zones; a regime of attractive package of incentives highlighted by 75per cent import duty rebate, 100 per cent foreign ownership, as well as 100 per cent repatriation of profit and dividends.
It would be recalled that Indorama has so far invested $1.2 billion in the free zone and exported more than 1.2 million metric tons of urea last year and supplied a further 300,000 metric tons of the product to the domestic market. While calling for better collaboration between investors and the regulator, Umana advised operators at the free zones to bring their policy-related challenges to his attention any time they arise.
