The Kumo Tomato Processing Company, Gombe, Gombe State would create more than 17,000 job opportunities for the people of the North-East state, when the company is fully resuscitated.
Alhaji Abba Buba-Biri, Commissioner for Agriculture and the Chairman, Committee for the resuscitation of the factory, stated this in Gombe on Thursday.
“The company, if completed, will create more than 10, 000 job in the farm level; in the factory level, it will create about 2, 000 Jobs; while in services, it will create over 5, 000 jobs in terms of transport, labourers among other engagement.
“From production side a lot of farmers will be involve in tomato production, in the field you can imaging the level of employment of people, after producing, services, distribution, marketing and a lot of benefit along the value chain from planting up to packaging,’’ he said.
According to him, to resuscitation of the factory is going to cost a lot of money because of the current bad situation of the factory.
He said that the factory needs a lot of water to operate by providing sustainable borehole or sources of water from Dadin-Kowa Dam and man power among others.
“If you are to resuscitate the factory for production, it will cost about N2.5 billion, because the building itself needs to be renovated.
“Also, most of the cables and other equipment have been vandalised, and you have to replace them.
“And the whole packaging section, you have to remove and bring the new model for effective production and to provide source of water,’’ he said.
The commissioner noted that if resuscitated, it would boost the economy of the state through revenue generation.
He said that the state government was committed to improving its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to provide more dividend ofn democracy to its people.
Buba-Biri said that 70 per cent of tomatoes consumed in the country are imported.
According to him, Gombe, being the second largest tomatoes producing state after Kano, could contribute positively to the production and development of the state and the country at large.
He said that the committee had completed its assignment and submitted its report to the state government for assessment and implementation.
