Redesigning Cross River Landscape with Industries

Industry

With a clear policy of decoupling Cross River State from over-dependence on federal allocation, Governor Ben Ayade has doted the state with key industries which when sustained and maintained will not just improve the revenue of the state, but substantially address its unemployment challenges, Bassey Inyang writes

Recently at the test run of a world-class Rice Mill in Ogoja, Africa’s first-ever vitaminised rice milling plant, Governor Ben Ayade, a Professor of Environmental Microbiology, was at his intellectual best, practically lecturing the awe-struck audience on the process of modern rice milling.

Ayade: “We have just had a full test run, a pre-commissioning test run from the point of receiving the padding from the pad, through the pre-cleaning to parboiling stage to the preserving where it does the destoning, taking out the outer shell to the whitener and from where it goes further down the system to absorb the grading and making sure that the grain size is uniform and finally to the bagging line”

It was clear the governor was ecstatic at the birthing of the mill. Before his coming as governor, Cross River State was a barren land in terms of industrialisation. The state was grotesquely referred to as a “civil service state”- an unsettling euphemism for a consumer rather than producing state.

Many in Cross River say Ayade is a pathfinder who has the presence of mind to realise that there is another route, besides the meagre monthly federal allocation which can barely pay salaries, to broadening the frontiers of the state’s economy to achieve prosperity and good life for his people.

That new route is aggressive industrialisation which he wasted no time in embarking upon following the assumption of office in 2015.

The multi-million naira ultra-modern Ogoja vitaminised rice mill and the nearby automated Ikom cocoa processing plant today stand in majestic testimony of Ayade’s painstaking efforts at pulling Cross River State from the doldrums.

In six years of his governorship, Ayade has established about 34 industries and income-generating, life-changing infrastructures and assets- some completed and functioning and others under advanced stages of completion.

Apart from the Ogoja rice mill and Ikom cocoa processing plant, the rest of the industries include the ultra-modern rice seeds and seedling factory, the 23,000 per hour Calachika Chicken processing factory and Cross River Integrated Poultry, Cross River Noodles factory, Cross River Garment Factory, Cross River Pharmaceutical Factory (CALAPHARM) and Cross River Feedmill Limited, all located in Calabar, the state capital.

A former governor of the state, Donald Duke believes that the first-ever rice seedling factory in Calabar will go a long way in ensuring food sufficiency.

His words: “From what I have seen here, it can enable the entire West Africa sub-region to be self-sufficient in rice. If all Ayade did was to ensure that the entire sub-region of West Africa is self-sustaining in rice production, he will deserve a Nobel Prize for that.”

There are also the industrial Cassava Processing plant, Obubra, Ultra-modern Rice mill, Ogoja, Tiles, and Asbestos factory, Yala, Groundnut Processing plant, Bekwara, Took Pick factory, Yakurr, Piles, Poles and Pylon factory, Akamkpa, Teachers Continous Training Institute, Biase, British-Canadian School, Obudu, Obudu Cargo and Passenger International Airport, the 147-kilometre Mfom-Okuku- Obudu- Bekwara-Ogoja highway linking the entire Northern senatorial district of the state, the Cross River state wholly-owned airline, Cally Air among others.

The virgin 29-kilometre Boki East-West road is nearing completion.

There are also the ongoing construction of Bakassi Deep Seaport and the 274km superhighway.

After a tour of the industries recently, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), country representative, Jean Bakole was visibly impressed by what he saw, prompting him to declare: “We cannot emphasise enough the good industrialisation works of Governor Ayade. We call him a captain of the industrialisation in the country. I, therefore, on behalf of UNIDO, proclaim him the Champion of Industrialisation in Nigeria”

On his part, multi-billionaire businessman and President of the Coscharis Group, Cosmas Maduka, succinctly described Ayade industrialisation drive thus: “It is better seen than imagined”

Another business mogul, Anambra State-born Arthur Eze, has this to say after inspecting the various industries already completed at the Calabar Industrial Park: “I have never seen such a thing anywhere in Africa. I have travelled raroundEast, West and North Africa, but I haven’t seen such. The people of Cross River State are lucky to have this young man as the governor who is creating a lot of jobs for the teeming unemployed young people with the intent to create even more and this gives hope for the future.”

The beauty of the Ayade style lies in his people-oriented governance. For him, the people come first and their opinions form the fulcrum of policy formulations.

This explains the ongoing state-wide referendum to decide whether the industries should be privatised or remain wholly state-owned.

Whatever the people finally opt for will be a huge win for them because the bottom line is massive job creation. Many of the industries are primed to create quantum, direct, and indirect jobs.

For example, the chicken processing plant is positioned to be fed by the Integrated Poultry Farm but local poultry farmers are equally expected to feed the plant to meet soaring demands.

The state is also eyeing the West African sub-region for the supply of its poultry products from the poultry farm and Calachika.

While Calachika slaughters, processes, and freezes the chickens both for export and local consumption, the poultry farm, beyond satisfying local needs, will have its products exported.

Ayade’s dexterity in making the difference in the agricultural value chain is on the verge of clearly establishing Cross River nay Nigeria ahead of three other African countries as the doyen of poultry production in Africa.

Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Nigeria are the four top countries in Africa best for poultry investment. With an estimated 200 million population, research shows that Nigeria’s poultry consumption is already in the double-digit, but a far cry from the 40kg annual consumption most countries have attained.

With a storage capacity of about 6,500 tonnes and on continuous production, a storage capacity of 240 tonnes per day, at 24 hours operation, the Ogoja rice mill will boost the fortunes of rice farmers in the state.

Former Governor Liyel Imoke is enamoured by the rice mill. His words: This is a phenomenal project that speaks volumes of the governor’s not just vision but the timing of a project of this nature. I love the location and this can capture all the rice in the central and north, and ideally situated in terms of access to the market.”

Situated at the cocoa-producing belt of Cross River, the Ultra-modern Cocoa processing plant at Ikom has without doubt provided a huge, ready market for cocoa farmers in the area.

To ensure that the state is indeed a tourist destination besides diversifying its economy, Ayade floated Cally Air, with two Boeing 737 aircraft for a start.

Evidently, under Ayade, Cross River is in the column of accelerated economic growth.

Experts and stakeholders opine that it takes a man of intellectual refinement and civilisation, a man with indomitable optimism and can-do spirit, one with the burning zeal to change the hitherto sordid narratives of his people and state to dream big and embark on clinical crystallisation of such dreams. That man, they insist, is Professor Ben Ayade.