Development of the Kano Export Processing Zone (EPZ) is at an advanced stage and Lekki EPZ, which is being developed under private ownership, is still under construction. Other schemes of the authority, which are targeted at grassroots development and balanced industrial dispersal throughout the country, include border free zones located in Maigatari, Jigawa State and Banki in Borno State both in the northern part of the country. Export processing factories and export farms are located all over the country. This scheme is designed to enable investors with export potential that could not possibly locate in the EPZ/FTZ to benefit from the incentives available to investors located in the zones.

Rwanda:

Companies from Kenya, China and Mauritius as well as from Rwanda itself have applied to have transit sheds in the Rwanda Free Trade Zone. (source Mbendi Information Services: www.mbendi.com)

South Africa:

During the course of the fourth annual World Free Zone Convention at the end of October 2004, the South African stakeholders plan to help facilitate the formation of an Association of African Free Zones. This event, which is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry and South Africa’s Industrial Zones, will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and feature the continent’s first major exhibition for the Free Zone world (www.freezones.org) fDi plans to publish its first free zone supplement to coincide with the convention.