Central Bank of Nigeria and Roche Pharmaceutical Company, Ireland in partnership with Enugu state government had taken steps to working together to revive mourlibune agricultural facilities in the state ,with major focus on reviving the Oil palm and Cashew plantations .
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, on Tuesday, received in audience delegations of CBN and Roche Pharmaceutical who paid him a courtesy visit in Government House.
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, Ugwuanyi observed that, “the micro economic management propels the growth and prosperity of every society, to maintain tranquility , regulate social balances as well as to overcome it’s inherent challenges and provide security”.
He assured the partners that during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the state government would do what will favour all the parties and the people of Enugu State.
“We are going to do everything within our power to make sure that this partnership works very well.
.All our hands are open to accept anything you can bring to the state,Ezeilo said.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation and Special Adviser to the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria,(CBN), on Domestic Finance, Tony Ifechukwu, told Ugwuanyi that they were ” in Enugu to discuss ways of harnessing the enormous potentials embedded in the Agri-business Enterprises of the State to facilitate the much needed accelerated growth , expansion, and development of the state’s economy.”.
He commended the State government for it’s developmental strides, the good road network which creates access to rural roads for farmers to easily transport their farm produce .
Ifechukwu said that they had gone on inspection of some agricultural facilities in the state, including Oil palm plantations at Ugwuoba, Ifite Olo, and Omaeche . They also went to Oji River, Oghe and saw Cashew plantation. He said they also saw a large Rice farm at Ifite Olo and expressed satisfaction with what he saw on ground .
The leader of the delegation explained that why they were interested in Oil palm and Cashew was that they are a long term crops.
“When we plant oil palm or cashew, it’s a long term plant that can last for Twenty years and what we need to say is that under Mrs Ezeilo and Ugwuanyi, we have another division of oil palm trees coming up in the next twenty five years. We must have had a source of sustaining our people”, he said .
According to him, the facilities were in the state of disuse and they would revive them.
“The governor of Central Bank wants states to become economically viable and Enugu state is one of those states where this thing can happen,” Ifechukwi said.
He added that they saw a massive rice farm at Ifite Olo and was surprised that Enugu state has such large rice farm .
He was optimistic ” that in the next farming season, Enugu state would be in the map of those States producing rice in this country ”
‘We have seen the abandoned cashew factories.
“We can have cashew processing plant, we can have an oil palm mill so we can maximise the infrastructure we have there to meet the needs ,” Ifechukwi said.
On the terms of agreement for the partnership, the CBN, representative said they would try to remove bureaucracy.
“We want to get issues of the tenure of the agreement well spelt out.
“We expect that the state government will graciously grant us the
concession agreement, maybe 35 years to 40 years, so that the investors can earn some profits from their productions.”
He requested for an agreement that would provide safety and security to the investor, an agreement where investors will agree to bring certain infrastructural development, maybe social infrastructure like borehole, school, maybe renovation.
“We want to see an agreement that the investor will agree to undertake, to employ at least 60 percent of the people in certain categories except when we don’t have them in the local ,then, we can go outside and get people”, Ifechukwu said.
He spoke on equity interest, which takes care of the interest of the investors and their safety. He also spoke on issue of governance and said that they would want to know what is happening in governance ,in the legal agreement .
He explained that every investor would like to know what is happening in government. They want to see an agreement that would enable the investors run their businesses for a long time and make their profits.
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“We have enough information on where to get the resources, where they lye and how to use it ” he said.
