Abia development: Ikpeazu visits World Bank, seeks partnership; Meets British High Commissioner, Infrastructure Bank team

Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has met with the Country Director of the World Bank in Nigeria, Rachid Benmessaoud, at the Bank’s office in Abuja.
In his address to the World Bank Country Director, Governor Ikpeazu solicited the support of multilateral institutions to drive his development agenda in Abia, assuring that his administration was doing all it can to market the potentials of the state in general and Aba in particular..
According to him, “Abia must develop and it is our duty to develop our state with support from global organizations like the World Bank. The world must hear about and support what our people are doing in Aba. As the Chief Marketing Officer of the state and the Aba brand, it is my duty to tell the world what our people can do and also beg the world to come and help us develop Abia. That is why I am here. On our part, we are doing everything we can to ensure that Aba and all of Abia remain open for business. If we do the needful in Aba, which we are ready to do now, Abia will be counted among states in Nigeria that will no longer be relying on the allocation from Abuja, because we have all it takes to provide for ourselves and others in Aba. As a matter of fact, Aba is the SME capital of Nigeria”.
Responding, Mr. Benmessaoud promised to explore areas of synergy and support to Abia State within the available programs and resources of the World Bank.
The governor also held meetings with the Managing Director/ CEO of The Infrastructure Bank, Adekunle Oyinloye and his team, as well as with the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Ankwright,