The International Convention Centre (ICC) in Awka, Anambra Capital, will be completed and ready for use as venue for the governorship handover ceremony on March 17.
Mr Michael Okonkwo, the state Commissioner for Housing, gave this indication while speaking with newsmen in Awka on Thursday.
Okonkwo said the edifice, with 10,000 sitting capacity, would be one of the biggest and most sophisticated convention centres in Nigeria when completed.
He said Anambra ICC was approved by Gov. Willie Obiano under the Project Fund and would be the destination to national and international conferences and conventions of any magnitude.
“This edifice has high local content; the contractor, the engineers, skilled workers and artisans, totalling about 800 workers, who have worked here since the project started, are all Nigerians.
“The Anambra ICC was designed in Nigeria and modeled in China where all the steel input were fabricated and imported from, but all other inputs were sourced locally,” he said.
Okonkwo, an architect, said that the ICC, sitting on nine hectres of land, had a capacity of 10,000 seats in the convention hall alone with inbuilt sound system and three event halls of different sizes, shops and banking hall.
He said the premise was designed to accommodate a football pitch sized lawn for games, monument fountain, 1,500 car parking spaces, Drive-in Boulevard and a 5-star hotel facility.
The commissioner said the project would be viable with high return on investment as Awka would become a hub of national and international conferences.
“Anambra is now set to participate competitively in the corporate and tourism sector; with the International Airport and sprawling hospitality business and ICC in Awka, we are the best choice destination in Nigeria. (NAN)
