Why We Will Not Deliver Rice City May 29 – Ayade

By Jonathan Ugbal: Government House Correspondent

From (R) Cross River State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade, Business Development Director, Thai African Corporation Limited, Mrs. Pantipa Dhanagom and the Regional Program Coordinator & Acting Manager, Agriculture Secretariat, Asian Development Bank, Dr. Thamana Lekpricliaul, during a session with the press at the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan bypass, site for the Calabar Rice City (file pix)

The Thai Africa rice city, a seedling project of the Cross River State Government earlier scheduled to be delivered on May 29, 2017 as part of activities marking Governor Ben Ayade’s second year in office will now be completed at a later date.

Ayade disclosed this yesterday at the project site during a routine inspection shortly after arriving Calabar where he stressed that it will be the best when eventually completed.

“Although we have missed our target day which is May 29, but surely we are on course in case of the quality standard, a lot of design review as you can see. Some areas that were completed, we have to go back to reconstruct what we had actually constructed because there were change of design,” Ayade said.

He continued: “We went around looking for the very best and we saw the very best in the world. We decided to modify it and in full operation you will see the sophistry and the automation which will be absolutely wonderful,” adding that, “it is obvious that this will be the most outstanding seedling manufacturing plant in Africa.”

Ayade said he is always happy when his Memorandum of Understanding signed turn into action with over 60 signed in less than two years and in what seemed to be a reply to critics, said: “MoU is a technical agreement between parties that are willing to understudy each other and do business. That is the first step and the next is progress, due diligence of both parties and consummating it with the proper agreement.”

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He explained that the project was in a bid to compliment the efforts of the federal government and even better.

“This is something that is done where we are picking from. It is a Federal government project but you have a small state government doing it two times bigger and sophisticated than what is industry standard,” Ayade said and expressed satisfaction at the pace of work.

Also, the Thai members of the team to manage the facility said there was need to get the basics right in machinery and equipment to deliver on the project.

“We are doing a little modification for we want the best. We want to do it once and in the proper way,” said the Chief Executive Officer, Kannadit who was accompanied by Mrs. Pantiphar Dhanagom.

He added that: “This project will generate lot of money from seeds production while opening up vistas for job creation and training.”

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