LADOL : Model for new economy diversification, says MD
MD LADOL (Dr. Amy Jadesimi) and Hon. Arkebe Oqubay (Senior Minister and Special Adviser to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Ethiopia) speaking at OECD Africa Forum.
By Abisola THOMPSON
The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic Base (LADOL),remains a model for new economic diversification in the country, says the Managing Director, Dr Amy Jadesimi.
Jadesimi was quoted to have said this in a statement on Monday in Lagos that the company had come up with a master plan in achieving the target which had been in the pipeline for three years.
Amy who spoke at the 19th Edition of the International Economic Forum on Africa with the theme: “African Integration: Investing in our common future”, in Madrid, said LADOL was leveraging on revenues from servicing the petroleum sector.
According to her, this will help to complete the development of the remainder of the zone as a completely sustainable ecosystem and circular economy.
She said, “We spent the last three years perfecting this master plan and we are now rolling it out.”
The managing director said the development highlighted the importance of supporting real private sector indigenous companies that have the stamina, staying power and passion to build new businesses over ten to 20 years.
“Eighty per cent of the 680 million new jobs the world needs will be created by Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and larger indigenous companies such as LADOL
“This means it is imperative that Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and other investors in Africa directly fund private companies in Africa.
“To date, the vast majority of funds have gone through intermediaries, with most of the direct funding going to multinationals operating in Africa – this has to change if we want to build a sustainable world and maximise returns to investors.
“LADOL is 100 per cent indigenous industrial special economic zone in Nigeria,’’ she said.
Jadesimi said that over the last 18 years the investors have attracted 500 million dollars into the zone, transforming a disused swamp into a world class integrated logistics base and the largest fabrication and integration yard in West Africa, with the highest lifting capacity in Africa.
“ At LADOL, we focus on tackling high value activities, taking on projects that have never been done in Nigeria before.
“This opens up the market and has a multiplier effects on job creation of between five to ten, for every one job created in LADOL, five to ten are created outside LADOL,’’ she added.
She was joined on the panel by, Arkebe Oqubay (Senior Minister and Special Adviser to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Ethiopia), Jong-Dae Park (Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in the Republic of South Africa), Felix Fernández-Shaw (Director Development and International Co-operation, EU) and the moderator was María Teresa Fernández De La Vega (Chair, Women’s foundation for Africa).
The dialogues throughout the day built on the findings of the Africa’s Development Dynamics 2019: Achieving Productive Transformation report, which is the first economic report produced by the African Union Commission, in collaboration with the Development Centre.
The Forum was organised by the OECD Development Centre and the African Union Commission, in collaboration with Casa Árabe, Casa África and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
