In special economic zones business and trades laws differ from the rest of the country. The term, and a number of other terms, can have different specific meanings in different countries and publications. Often they have relaxed jurisdiction of customs or related national regulations. They can be ports or other large areas or smaller allocated areas.
Terms include free port (porto Franco), free zone (zona franca), bonded area (US: foreign-trade zone), free economic zone, free trade zone, export processing zone and maquiladora.
Most commonly a free port is a special customs area or small customs territory with generally less strict customs regulations (or no customs duties and/or controls for transshipment). Earlier in history, some free ports like Hong Kong enjoyed political autonomy. Many international airports have free ports, though they tend to be called customs areas, customs zones, or international zones.
Registered Free Zones in Nigeria
Although the enabling act came into effect in 1992, the pioneer Free Zone (the Calabar Free Trade Zone) was not fully completed until 1999, and commenced operation after official commissioning in November 2001. Since then, the Free Zones Scheme has been used as a vehicle for industrial and commercial development of the country. Private Sector participation and partnership with the Federal Government and other tiers of government has helped spread the scheme. This has culminated in the establishment of specialised Free Zones and other types of Zones, namely:
The introduction of free zones has played a large role in increasing the amount of investment into Nigeria. When all the free zones are fully operational, Nigeria is projected to play a large role in expanding export-driven manufacturing activities in Africa.
(member of the European Union)
(member of the European Union)