Awka

Location of Awka in Nigeria

History and politics

Awka in the ancient time became the technology capital of Igboland, and is today the capital of Anambra state of Nigeria. It is a place of craft and of the slogan Center of Handy Ingenuity.

Infrastructure

It is also home to the prestigious Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Awka was known in pre-colonial era for its magnificent blacksmith. The population of the city has exploded in the past few years exhibited by a large influx of traders and many new housing and hotel projects. The city's population is currently estimated to be about one million. Awka hosts a number of federal and state electronic media stations. The NTA Awka is a federally-owned station, while the state government maintains the headquarters of its TV and radio stations Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) in the city center.

Economy

Several new businesses and hotels have erected fascinating new buildings that have largely changed the face of Awka city. The partly state-owned Orient Petroleum Resources Ltd has the headquarters in Awka. The company is poised to set up a refinery at Igbariam to jump-start the exploitation of the huge crude oil deposits in the Anambra River basin.

Natives

There is more to Awka. In the USA for example, Awka people occupy many important positions in the public and private sectors. Living abroad, they formed themselves into social clubs like Awka Union USA and Canada, Awka town social community Uk and Ireland [www.awkauk.org] and other such useful associations. These associations are partly responsible for a lot of positive developments coming to Awka.

On the world wide web Awka people are active users of yahoo forums such as awkaforum@yahoogroups.com and http://groups.msn.com/awkacityafrica. When these groups started out they were informally moderated by Kanayo Onyechi in Dallas, Texas, Usa and Austin Dibor (a.k.a Native of Nigeria), who writes from London Uk. They used e-mail to invite Awka people around the world to these forums in order to draw research attention to Awka and Awka related issues. Six years later, anyone who is interested in information about Awka can now get it by searching online.

There is more to come in terms of multimedia. Thanks for taking an interest in Awka. When you are in Nigeria, visit the Palace of the King Eze Uzu II and also visit the Imo Awka sacred monkey forest. Top it up with a visit to the University as well as Obibia stream. The main high street in Awka is Ezi-oyibo. (Arize Mbulu onye Awka.)