BY GODDIE A. AKPAMA.
Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, will be finishing strong on May 29, 2023 when he is expected to handover power in the state to a successor.
One area that Governor, Prof Ayade has succeeded massively is industrialization. It is on record that his administration has built and established 38 factories across the state in his administration’s determined bid to decouple the state from overdependence on statutory allocation from the Federation Account.
Governor Ayade’s efforts in the agro-allied industry, especially in the cultivation and production of rice as food and cash crops has been applauded far and wide, and has won for himself awards and recognition by the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The most outstanding, and Governor Ayade’s strongest footprint in the rice sector is the multi-million naira Ogoja Rice Mill which has commenced production, and would be commissioned soon by President Buhari.
The Ogoja Rice Mill, the first of its kind in Africa, with a 10-ton per hour milling capacity, comes on the hills of the successful establishment of the Rice Seeds and Seedlings factory in Calabar.
The quantum of successes recorded by Governor Ayade, is just one of the strong platforms the APC governorship candidate, Prince Bassey Otu would be campaigning on ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Prince Otu believes that Governor Ayade has hit the nail on the head when he said recently that the mill fabricated to produce vitaminised rice has the capacity of turning the entire Cross River State to rice production field as it has capacity to create thousands of jobs for the State, especially the Northern people of the State.
According to Ayade, the Ogoja Rice Mill has a “6,500 tons and on continuous production,” a storage capacity of 240 tons per day, at 24 hours operation…
“So if we have 240 tons per day, it, therefore, means that even if we are to convert the whole land in Cross River State for rice farming, this factory has the capacity to take all.”
Arising from the above facts, the job of sustaining massive rice production in the state for local consumption, and commercial purposes has been made very simple for Prince Otu by the Ayade administration.
In acknowledging the giant strides of the current administration during his recent thank you tour of the 18 local government areas in the state, Prince Otu made it very clear that Governor Ayade’s Rice Revolution has returned Cross River State to its rightful position as a leading producer of rice in Nigeria.
Prince Otu is happy that the rice factory right before its test running has provided hundreds of direct employment, and thousands of indirect employment from the rice mill to the markets and even to the restaurants.
On the sustainability of the rice mill in Ogoja, Prince Otu believes in the privatisation policy of the Ayade administration because it has been proven that the state would gain more if it concentrates more on policy formulation and implementation, as will as providing enabling environment for investors to invest and create massive employment.
Prince Otu is also at home with Governor Ayade’s Anchor Borrowers policy and strategy, with support from the federal government, with a view to providing the much needed capital to thousands of rice farmers, especially young men and women across the state.
The APC candidate is in the know that the Rice seedlings factor in Calabar would supply the necessary inputs to the rice farmers.
In fact, with the solid foundation provided by Governor Ayade, the APC governorship candidate for 2023 is ready to hit the campaign podiums throughout Cross River State with Professor Ben Ayade’s success stories which cannot be ignored or wished away even by the governor’s opponents.
Long live Cross River State.
