The recent revelation that Enugu State government and Del-York Group have signed an agreement to build a multimillion-dollar 042 Arena and Entertainment Park in the state under the public-private aartnership (PPP) arrangement is cheering. According to the government, the facility is a pioneering sports, education and entertainment hub in the country. The one-stop entertainment hub to be sited in Enugu New City will have screening rooms, amphitheatres, live-and-work facilities for movie production companies, cast and crew.

The spacious 26 sq km Greenfield site centre will house about 300,000 residents when completed. It is expected that the New City will have world-class medical facilities, sports arena and a museum. Others are town houses, villas, hotels, clubs, golf course, swimming pool, ecological lake and efficient independent power facility. Above all, the New City will have an Innovative Park, envisioned as incubation ICT hub for the state.

After signing the deal with the management of Del-York Group in Government House, Enugu, Governor Peter Mbah explained: “In all, it is intended as the engine of growth to drive our ambitious economic vision of improving the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” When completed, the 046 Arena and Entertainment Park will undoubtedly boost economic growth, attract domestic and foreign investments, empower youths, create jobs and enhance tourism.

During the campaigns, Mbah promised, among others, to grow the creative sector through public-private initiatives. He has really taken a bold step to fulfill that promise by the planned development of the 046 Arena and Entertainment Park. However, the realisation of this project will only be anchored on its timely and seamless execution. This will definitely boost the nation’s growing film industry as well as sports. It is commendable that the governor has flagged-off the construction of access roads to the New City.

Therefore, we urge the governor to ensure that the project is duly executed and completed according to specifications and in line with global standard. The project is a good step towards building smart cities in the country, which Enugu State is showing example.

Apart from initiating the 046 Arena and Entertainment Park project, Governor Mbah has commenced the construction of model smart schools to improve the quality of teaching and learning in basic education schools in the state. Under the smart school initiative, the state government will ensure that these schools are equipped with centre for robotics and artificial intelligence, interactive smart boards, hybrid multimedia library and technology laboratory. The investment in education should be encouraged to boost the state’s human capital development.

Interestingly, the governor has also ventured into massive cassava production. This is hardly surprising because Enugu State is within the cassava growing belt of Nigeria. With about 26 per cent of global production, Nigeria is one of the largest producers of cassava in the world. In 2021, Nigeria produced over 63 million tons of cassava. According to figures from 2021 exports, Nigeria exported cassava worth $1.02 million, making it the 59th largest exporter of cassava in the world.

Incidentally, cassava was the 171st most exported product in Nigeria in 2021. This can possibly explain why Governor Mbah has acquired 500 hectares of land for the construction of bioethanol plant. Good enough, Enugu State government has also started the cultivation of cassava on 100,000 hectares of land across the state to boost export and job creation.

While these bold steps are commendable, we urge the governor to venture into palm oil plantation, coconut and cashew production as well. We say this because these are crops which Enugu State has comparative advantage. As good as the other initiatives are, agriculture seems to be the low-hanging fruit which Enugu and other South-East states can easily use to boost their internal revenues and create the much-needed jobs for the youths.

With only a few months in government, Governor Mbah has demonstrated that visionary governance is a possibility. We enjoin Peter Mbah and other governors in the South-East to emulate the worthy example of the former Premier of Eastern Region, Dr. M.I. Okpara in their development plans. However, they must jointly tackle the festering insecurity in the region. Without tackling insecurity, not much can be achieved in the area of investment and industrialisation.