Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has identified seven priority sectors the state is targeting to attract investment, deepen industrialisation and drive economic growth
Otti spoke last week at the ‘Meet the Governor Series’ of the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) in Lagos, themed, ‘‘Repositioning Abia for Enterprise, Industrialisation and Sustainable Economic Growth’’
The sectors, he said, are agribusiness and agro-processing, trade and markets, creative and digital economy, manufacturing and industrialisation, small and medium enterprise growth, inclusive finance and diaspora investment and innovation
Declaring Abia open for business, Otti said his administration had, in the past 39 months, focused on removing barriers to productivity and encouraging value creation to make the state more attractive to investors
He said reforms in fiscal governance and infrastructure were aimed at creating a conducive environment for businesses, adding that the state’s 2026 budget of N1016 trillion allocated 80 per cent to capital expenditure, which he described as the highest per-resident capital spending in the country based on available national expenditure figures.
According to him, the state’s projected internally generated revenue (IGR) of N2234 billion is expected to cover recurrent expenditure.
He added that Abia was ranked fourth in the BudgIT States Fiscal Transparency League in the fourth quarter of 2025
Otti said a 15 per cent budgetary allocation to healthcare had helped the state top the national chart on health emergency preparedness, while a security assessment by Phillips Consulting also ranked it favourably on the safety of lives and property
The NBCC President, AbimbolaOlashore in his remarks, said Aba’s manufacturing heritage provided a strong foundation for industrial growth but stressed that investors required predictable policies, functional institutions and quality infrastructure before committing capital