Nigeria’s Free Trade Zones: Locating Nigeria’s Tax-Free Goldmines

According to the World Bank, Free Trade Zones (FTZs) are duty-free areas, offering warehousing, storage, and distribution facilities for trade, trans-shipment, and re-export operations. FTZs have also been described as as a class of special economic zones, where goods may be landed, stored, handled, manufactured or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulations and generally not subject to customs duty. We are more inclined to the latter definition because it expands the definition of a FTZ. We surmise that a FTZ is an economic model designed to improve the socio-economic development of the FTZ’s host by the FTZ attracting local and foreign investors through vast tax and reduced-regulation incentives.

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