By Jonathan Ugbal; Government House Correspondent
Cross River Governor, Senator Benedict Ayade, again pushed the expectations of Cross Riverians from his administration, higher with the promise of a Chinese City and a University focused on Agriculture.
Ayade who has been out of the state for around a month revealed this to government house correspondents shortly after he touched down at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar in an Arik owned Bombardier CRJ1000 Nextgen jet where he said he had missed Cross Riverians “so much”.
Revealing the content of his “intercontinental tour”, he said it was a move to ” bring as many investors as I can to Cross River State and I am happy that by tomorrow you will be receiving the first team of investors arriving Nigeria which is a huge group coming in from Germany “.
Hinting on the mission of the teams coming in, Ayade says there is a ” large group coming in for agriculture, we have huge investment coming in terms of renewable energy, we have a large group coming in for the Garment Factory, we have a team coming in to also invest hugely in hydropower projects, we have a huge team that is also investing in the seaport “.
On the New Chinese City project, Ayade averred that “we have the Hunan team bringing over a hundred investors on the 8th of April, we have a team to visit Hunan province also to finalize documentation. We have a new China city that will be coming up here in Cross River State, built by the Hunan province. We have a 10 billion Naira project provided by the Hunan province”.
Furthermore, he disclosed that “We are bringing in a University which is focused on agriculture. We are bringing an Israeli partnership on the university systems.”
Continuing on the expected investments, he also added further, that “We will also have a logistic hub in Cross River State which will be focused in the manufacturing sector to provide and have Cross River State as the logistics base to support the whole of Africa.”
Adding that with the expected investments, it was evident that the proposed 350 billion Naira 2016 budget will be surpassed.
On the Calabar Festival and Carnival Calabar, he says the content will triple as it is bound to take a new dimension, especially the Carnival, after ten years.
It is expected that he will swear in his cabinet today to calm frayed political nerves.
Mixed reactions have continued trailing his decision to increase the number of appointments with his prolonged absence and frequent travels credited in the political circles to be causing disaffection between party members and ‘friendly’ opposition party members.