This is the second of a five part treatise seeking to highlight the enormous potentials and impact of the ongoing revolution in Agriculture and Industrialization by the Benedict Ayade administration in Cross River State.
In the first part, we were able to put in perspective the gains expected to accrue to the state in terms of job creation, revenue generation and even foreign exchange and gross domestic product.
We took a look at some of the investments including the Rice seed and seedlings company in Calabar, the vitaminized Rice Mill in Ogoja, the Calabar pharmaceutical Company in Calabar and the toothpick factory in Yakurr.
In this second part of the treatise, we will take a look at the Instant noodles factory in Calabar and the Cocoa Processing Factory in Ikom.
Subsequently we will look at the ultra modern poultry and frozen chicken for export company in Calabar, the yellow maize farm and feedmill in Obubra and others.
Let us start with the instant noodles factory located in the Ayade industrial layout in Calabar.
Only recently, the state took delivery of the equipment for the instant noodles production. Those equipment when installed will produce about 40 tons of instant noodles per day from the factory.
Ongoing is the construction of the factory building at the Ayade Industrial Layout and this is more than fifty percent completed and will be ready in a couple of months.
According to research, Nigeria is one of the highest per capita consumers of instant noodles in Sub Saharan Africa. It is also one of the top 5 fastest growing instant noodles markets in the world.
Report shows that in Nigeria, the volume share per kilograms for total noodles market was 105,348,225 in 2008. The survey stated that the analysis for potential demand in 2010 was 140 million people in population.
Also, according to estimates by World Instant Noodles Association (WINA), Nigeria consumed 1,650 and 1,760 billion servings of instant noodles in 2016 and 2017 respectively in Nigeria.
The prevailing market price for instant noodles in Nigeria is about N3,000 per kg. With the predicted consumption of 2,100 billion servings of instant noodles by 2020, the annual income for the product in Nigeria is expected to hit NGN2 trillion.
With a target of just 10 percent of the market share, we are expected to earn about NGN200 billion from the factory annually when it is fully operational.
The factory is expected to provide about one hundred direct jobs and more than one thousand indirect jobs in the State.
The instant noodles factory is conceived to be one of the first in the country to use the locally produced rice as raw material for its production according to the governor, Senator Ben Ayade.
In the Cocoa Sector, Cross River State is the second largest cocoa producer in Nigeria with production in excess of 80,000 Metric Tons a year. Cocoa from Cross River State has been judged one of the best in Nigeria even as the State has the potential to become the leading producer of cocoa in Nigeria.
About 85 percent of total cocoa production in Nigeria is exported as cocoa beans while the remaining 15 percent is processed locally into butter, liquor, powder and cake before being mostly exported. The failure to process cocoa locally has led to loss of jobs and other economic benefits.
It makes economic sense thus as the Cross River State Government takes up the challenge to invest in setting up a cocoa processing factory in the State being one of the first in the region.
In my recent visit to the site of the construction of the cocoa factory in Ikom, work had reached advanced stage in physical buildings while machines had already arrived in readiness for installation and commencement of production.
It is expected that the Cocoa processing firm when completed will be processing about 20,000 metric tones of cocoa into cocoa butter, cocoa liqueurs, cakes and powder, among others, the final products being chocolates and beverages.
This will have tremendous impact on the cocoa value chain in the State especially in increasing production and supporting micro and small scale industries servicing the sector.
The cocoa sector in Nigeria is worth NGN400 billion and the State seeks to maximize its stake in the sector and take just 20 percent of the market value. This will translate to NGN80 billion annual earnings.
With the expansion in the sector and further investment in the cocoa value chain, it is expected that about 500 direct jobs and more than five thousand indirect jobs will be created in Cross River State. Other benefits will come in the form of income earning through taxes and wealth creation.
Emmanuel Etim is SSA to Governor Ayade of Cross River State on Creative and Knowledge Economy.
NOTE:Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Emmanuel Etim, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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