Abia State Governor Alex Otti has said that there is a massive scale of the “Made in Aba” leather shoes and , stated that the city possesses the capacity to produce about 1 million pairs of shoes daily.
Speaking in an interview on Arise TV, Governor Ott with Ojy Okpe praised the craftsmanship, creativity, and untapped economic potential of Aba’s local manufacturers, emphasizing that the state’s vision is to transition fully from a hub of trading to an international hub of manufacturing.
Historically, industry stakeholders valued the Aba shoe hub at over ₦120 billion, producing over a million shoes per week collectively from its massive decentralized cluster of over 100,000 shoe makers
However, the state government under Governor Alex Otti is driving aggressive industrialization and public-private partnerships to scale this capacity dramatically into daily high-volume production.
Otti also said the state has launched a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the laboratory will create a structured gateway to standardize and prepare leather and garment goods for international markets.
In this regard the governor revealed a Yikodeen Partnership as advanced talks with Yikodeen to build a new facility capable of outputting an extra 10,000 pairs of specialized and safety boots daily.
The administration has also reopened and expanded production lines at the Enyimba Automated Shoe Company (ENASCO) while supporting mega-private entrants like Comfort Stevens Industries, which features a 15,000-per-day shoe capacity.
