By Dara Ojomo
Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, says his administration is steering the state away from traditional trading and toward manufacturing and digital commerce, a move he says reflects where global business is headed.
Speaking Monday in Umuahia at the Igbo Day Lecture and Dinner, organized by Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide under the theme “The Igbo Charter and Development of Ala Igbo,” Otti said the shift is deliberate. Abia and the wider Igbo business community, long associated with trading, are now leaning into manufacturing and tech-driven commerce instead.
He connected the move directly to a growing concern among Igbo entrepreneurs: increasing competition from Chinese traders in Lagos retail markets. Rather than compete on that turf, Otti said Abia is stepping back from it entirely. Markets still matter, he noted, but the state’s focus is moving up the value chain, from physical retail to manufacturing, and from in-person markets to digital delivery. He pointed to Alibaba as the model Abia is chasing.
The governor argued this shift is what will let Abia entrepreneurs compete on a global scale, rather than staying boxed into physical marketplaces. On the Chinese competition specifically, his message was blunt: Abia isn’t interested in fighting for space there, it’s moving to a different game entirely, one it plans to lead from Abia itself.
He also pointed to concrete investment behind the talk: the state’s TechRise initiative, which trains young people in digital skills. Some graduates of the programme, he said, are now working for global tech companies while based in Aba.
Otti pledged his administration’s continued support to the Ohanaeze Ndigbo leadership and praised this year’s theme, “Njikọ Ka” (“Unity is Supreme”), calling it a fitting reminder of the value of unity within diversity. He closed by pointing to the foundation his government has laid so far, promising more transformation ahead for the state.
