BEVERLY HILLS, March 17, (THEWILL) – At least 7,000 citizens from Akwa Ibom will be engaged when the proposed $1.4 billion fertiliser and ammonia plant being established by the state government becomes operational.
Akwa Ibom State’s Governor Emmanuel Udom disclosed this on his arrival at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, from official engagements outside the country.
THEWILL recalls that Emmanuel signed an agreement for siting of a multi-billion fertiliser plant in Akwa Ibom on March 3,
The disclosure by the Governor came barely two days after the plan by the state government to train and empower 3,000 youth in different vocations to ensure gainful employment opportunities in the near future was unveiled.
The Governor, however, appealed to beneficiaries to get set to embrace the opportunity, as the training and engagement of the 7,000 semi-skilled labour were part of the government’s effort on human capacity building in the state.
He said: “It is not only a fertiliser plant. It is fertilizer and ammonia that will be coming in; so many other projects will be coming in relating to that and so many other things.
“I like us to be given a little bit of time, but I think what is very urgent is for us to go back and see the human capacity that is on ground.
“This is the time the youths must be willing to go on training to be useful so that people from other places will not come and occupy these opportunities.
“A lot of construction works will be ongoing in some of these projects, we need close to 7,000 semi-skilled labour, and to train 7,000 will cost us some time, money and other resources.
“So, I think what is very urgent now is human capacity development. It’s not for me to keep analysing the projects, as you can see, the projects are at an advanced stage.”
An excited Udom announced that a bigger project would soon be unveiled in the state.
“While we are celebrating this one, I think something much bigger is coming, we just concluded that and it will be unfolded soon,” he mentioned.
He also inspected the Green House facilities at the precinct of the airport, and pledged to support the local farmers to boost the production of crops that would feed the citizenry.
While inspecting the onions plantation, and tomato and pepper farms, the Governor expressed satisfaction with the State Ministry of Agriculture, noting that cultivation of such crops that are not common in the region would put an end to dependence on external suppliers to the state market.
He said: “I am more excited with the onions plantation, I think this is the same thing people thought is rocket science because we didn’t even try, we thought probably this could not be done here.
”But look at it now, within three to four months, we are harvesting onions; it is perfect, it is really excellent.
“I only inspected the tomatoes and the pepper farm to actually assess the level of harvest and be sure that as it is being harvested the nursery is in tune to replant.
“Within the week, I am going to inspect rice, cassava, all staple foods, so, we will use this end of the first quarter to look at providing inputs for local farmers this planting season.”
According to him, the state took advantage of the scarcity in supply of onions, which necessitated the Ministry of Agriculture to swing into onions cultivation.
“I keep saying that our target before we leave office in May 2023 is to at least produce 80 percent of what we eat in our locality. So, we got challenged last year when they said there are no onions in the market. We said let’s try planting onions inside the Greenhouse, and another outside, at least you have seen the result. We have given an order to clear more hectares and plant more, so I am sure by June we should harvest a lot of onions, pepper, and other vegetables so that we can feed the people,” he stressed.
He commended the farmers rearing aquatic animals to meet the demands in the state and beyond and encouraged all Akwa Ibom people to own farms.
In her response, Dr. Glory Edet, the Commissioner for Agriculture, thanked the Governor for embarking on the inspection at the Onions Plantation and Green House Farm.
She said that the vision of the agric-friendly Governor had given the state food sufficiency.
She said: “When we heard about the crisis in transporting onions into our state, the onions we cultivated in our Green House helped us in Akwa Ibom. We did not feel the impact because we were fully prepared.”
Edet disclosed that the state government had trained farmers on the cultivation of various crops and vegetables, especially onions, to meet the demands in the state.
She said that next year, onions planting would cut across all parts of the state.
