The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate for the 2027 election in Abia State, Dr Kelechi Anosike, has promised to build a world-class Common Facility Centre, CFC, in Aba to boost the leather and garment clusters.
Anosike made the promise in Aba when he met with representatives of the Leather and Garment Clusters, comprising over 200,000 members, as part of his ongoing campaign tour of the commercial city
He said the proposed CFC would be a solar-powered industrial and technical hub equipped with world-class machines to enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially young tailors, shoemakers and garment makers who lack capital, to produce international-standard finished products
According to him, the model would replicate what the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, did in Abuja, where tailors register their materials, pay a token of N5,000, now N10,000, to access all machines in the centre to finish jobs for their customers and keep the proceeds
“I said we will set up a centre, solar powered, with all kinds of world best machines Like what SMEDAN did in Abuja, like the tailoring aspect,” he said.
The PDP candidate recalled that a similar facility built in Aba in 2008 by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, in partnership with the Federal and Abia State Governments was abused, vandalised and eventually abandoned by successive administrations, thereby defeating its empowerment purpose
He said his administration would bring back the concept as a deliberate empowerment strategy, stressing that apart from the CFC, his government would establish a Traders Microfinance Bank to provide interest-free loans and grants to traders and clusters to scale up production and reduce dependence on imports
Anosike argued that while white-collar jobs are limited, thousands of SMEs can be created if government partners with traders to produce locally made goods for which Nigeria spends over $10 to $20 billion annually importing, despite having the raw materials in abundance
Anchoring his campaign on what he termed “productive welfarism,” the governorship hopeful said his mission is encapsulated in the slogan ‘Aruo Uzo, Aruo Afo’ (build roads, build people), insisting that infrastructure is meaningless if the people are not alive and economically empowered to use it
“I’m a welfarist and the welfarism is not to give you handouts, it’s to empower you to support the state It is called productive welfarism,” he declared.
He criticised what he described as anti-people taxes on the poor, vowing to abolish them, and lamented that despite the increase in federal allocation to Abia from about N35 billion to about N40 billion monthly, there was “zero welfare” to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
In his remarks, the National Secretary of Aba Leather and Garment Clusters, Mr Ken Anyanwu, said the delegation came to introduce the over 200,000-member body to the candidate and to seek a more detailed engagement on how to upgrade the clusters to world-class status.
Anyanwu, who doubled as Cooperative President, said Aba leather and garment products are number one in Africa, lamenting that while other countries are wooing Aba artisans, successive Abia governments have neglected them
According to him, SMEs remain the pivot of economic growth and should be prioritised by any people-oriented government, pledging the support of the members He stressed that Anosike’s manifesto holds key for the clusters.
Those at the event include, Abia PDP Deputy Chairman and Senatorial candidate for Abia South, Chinyere Onuoha, Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency, Bob Ajuzieogu, the Aba Centra House of Assembly candidate, Anastasia Uchenna and Hon Daniel Ajunwa (Obere Agu), House of Assembly candidates for State constituencies in Abia. They all urged the people of Abia to vote for PDP in 2026..