Rivers State: Governor, Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has stated that the Cassava Processing Company built in Afam, Oyigbo Local Government Area will come into operation soonest.
Wike, who disclosed this after inspecting the plant on Thursday, noted that the company would create employment for over 4500 persons when the company comes into full operation.
He also discovered that the plant cassava would not only create employment but would as well boost agriculture in the state; adding that the State Government has 70 percent equity share in the project which is in partnership with Shell Petroleum Development Company(SPDC) of Nigeria.
According to him, “We are quite happy that this project which was initiated by the previous administration in 2012 and abandoned has come to the stage of completion.
“When we came on board and saw the usefulness of this project to our economy, we did not hesitate to release funds to complete it.
“As you can see this project which is about 90 percent complete would have been commissioned this month if not for the COVID-19 pandemic which has negatively impacted global economy.
“Let me commend the management of this plant for fast-tracking the completion and the novel initiative that will use mobile machines to collect cassava from the farmers at their various clusters.
“This, will no doubt, reduce the challenge of logistics and increase farmer participation”.
Responding, Managing Director of the Rivers State Cassava Processing Company, Ruben Giesen appreciated Governor Wike for taking up the project, which he described in his term as the first of its kind in sub-saharan Africa, hinted that the plant is expected to produce within 45 thousand metric tons of cassava flour daily and about 12 thousand metric tons of cassava tubers would also be needed for collection by its mobile plants from farmers around the state for processing.
He also assured that the cassava processing plant would increase income for small holder farmers, if a conducive environment is made available for trading of cassava tubers when the project is achieved.
