With a revived power project, Aba's industries are buzzing again

Aba, a state in the south-east of Nigeria, is known as one of the country’s industrial centres, with manufacturing, fashion, leatherwork and furniture hubs that are reputed to be able to build just about any consumer product. However, the availability of stable and adequate power was, for a long time, the one thing holding back the state’s industrious entrepreneurs. To keep their machines going, businesses have had to rely on diesel and petrol generators, adding to the costs of existing businesses and discouraging new investors. That was until the revival of the Aba Integrated Power Plant, backed by a $50m loan from Africa Export-Import Bank in 2021. Developed by Geometric Power, the project has made more power available to Aba’s residents and entrepreneurs, creating the conditions for businesses to expand, for new enterprises to be built and for jobs to be created. First conceived about two decades ago, the Aba power projects stalled when a concession secured by Geometric Power was sold to another company. Geometric Power, which had already built a 27-kilometre gas pipeline linking a gas processing station to the power plant, was forced to seek legal redress, eventually securing its rights to the concession. “It was an extremely, extremely difficult period,” recalls Professor Bart O. Nnaji, founder and chairman of Geometric Power. “Many years later, Afreximbank were able to rescue it and bring it back to life,” he adds. According to Derin Fajuyitan, head of trade enabling infrastructure, project and asset based finance at Afreximbank, the bank was convinced by the underlying rationale for the project. “The economy needs some form of power. It’s one of the reasons why a lot of companies had to exit the country,” he points out. The project was thus an opportunity for the bank to support businesses in the state to expand and create jobs. “We wanted to also rewrite the script of Nigeria in terms of our ability to generate sustainable power,” Fajuyitan adds. The facility provided by Afreximbank helped finance the completion of the Aba Integrated Power Project and enabled Geometric Power to finally begin supplying electricity to customers in its designated area. The project is expected to contribute significantly to the local economy, with Geometric Power’s electricity supply projected to help increase Abia State’s GDP by around 8%, while lowering energy costs and attracting new businesses. For a city whose greatest economic asset has always been the ingenuity of its people, reliable power could finally allow that ingenuity to operate with full force. Early indications suggest that it is having the right impact. According to management of the plant, electricity access has improved dramatically in the distribution area. Alfred Ategie, an engineer and head of metering at Aba Power Electric Company, points to an increase in metering penetration from 2% when operations at the plant began to an astounding 80%. More significantly, businesses that had previously left the state are returning. “Industries that left years ago are coming back. And you know what that means? When industry comes, there will be increasing employment opportunities,” Ategie notes. Ugo Opiegbe, managing director of Aba Power Electric Company, says new businesses are appearing across the area covered by the project. “Tremendous changes have happened within the ring fence since we took over the supply of electricity. You get to see new things each time you drive around town.” This view is corroborated by Fajuyitan. “We’re generally beginning to see the influx of small and medium-scale enterprises,” said Derin Fajuyitan. For the captains of Aba’s industries, the most significant impact has been in their ability to now rely on stable power from the grid, a welcome change from the past when they had to fuel their generators with expensive fuel to be able to operate. One of these entrepreneurs is Prince Arthur Uche, founder and CEO of Beyond Clothing. His garment factory produces school and corporate uniforms, but for most of its 19 years in operation, the company depended overwhelmingly on generators. “We had to run on diesel, and we were spending so much.” Reliable electricity changes the economics of the factory because its machines can operate more consistently and production can expand without the same dependence on fuel-powered generators. “I honestly cannot imagine or quantify the impact that Geometric is already having in our business, especially our future,” Uche says. Yinka Coker-Madu, Client Relations at Beyond Clothing, says the factory currently produces about 8,000 garments a week. “I’m just imagining next year, we’re going to be doing double of that, triple of that.” That is precisely the type of expansion that Afreximbank hopes its financing can catalyse. The impact is similarly visible in Aba’s furniture and manufacturing sector. Raymond Mkpurouma Aliga Mon, co-founder and CEO of R&A Mahogany and Interiors, invested in advanced CNC machinery after attending the Intra-African Trade Fair in 2021, where Afreximbank had committed to supporting Geometric Power. “I said, I believe that Afreximbank will make good on their promise to Geometric Power. And today, it’s a dream come true.” With his CNC machines able to run consistently now, he is able to produce designs that he was importing in the past. That effect is emblematic of the broader industrialisation strategy that Afreximbank is backing across the continent. Investments in industry-enabling infrastructure support local entrepreneurs to produce items to serve the local markets, reducing the need for imports and the concomitant pressure on foreign reserves. It also means more jobs, as Nnaji points out. “It’s by having proper economic growth that you have jobs.” In Aba, where a vast network of artisans already exists, reliable power simply means empowering more people to do the jobs that they already have. “It is the centre of artisans in Nigeria. There is nothing that cannot be fabricated in Aba,” Mon says. For decades, however, unreliable power has constrained that entrepreneurial spirit. Now, with available power, that spirit can be unleashed. “We pride ourselves in being very entrepreneurial. People are ready to work, and they work very hard here. The discouragement has always been power.” The success of the Aba Power Project may have wider implications for Nigeria, which, despite being one of the continent’s largest economies, continues to be held back by insufficient capacity and inefficient distribution systems. Aba demonstrates that a targeted approach can yield results. Rather than simply adding generation capacity to a national system, Geometric Power combines generation and distribution within a defined industrial and commercial area, allowing the benefits of reliable electricity to be concentrated where economic activity is already strong. That is, perhaps why this investment is important not only for its impact but for the model that it demonstrates. Afreximbank did not create Aba’s entrepreneurial spirit. It did not invent its manufacturing culture or its appetite for enterprise. What it did was help remove one of the biggest constraints holding that potential back. In financing the revival of Geometric Power, Afreximbank has backed the idea that infrastructure should serve as a platform for productive transformation. If reliable electricity can enable Aba’s factories to expand, artisans to modernise, businesses to return and young people to find employment, the impact of a $50m intervention may ultimately be measured in billions of dollars of economic activity.