This is the third of a five part treatise seeking to highlight the enormous potentials and impact of the ongoing revolution in Agriculture and Industrialization by the Senator Benedict Ayade’s administration in Cross River State.
In the first and second parts, we were able to put in perspective, the gains expected to accrue to the state in terms of job creation, revenue generation, foreign exchange and gross domestic product from many of the investments.
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, the Toothpick factory in Yakurr, the Instant noodles factory in Calabar and the Cocoa Processing Factory in Ikom.
In this third part, we will take a look at the Ultra modern Poultry and Frozen Chicken for Export company in Calabar and the Cross River Garment Factory also in Calabar.
Recently, Cross River State took delivery of ultra modern chicken processing plant equipment ready for installation at the Ayade Industrial park. The people of the state were elated to see the governor receive these as they were a confirmation that his vision for industrializing the state was coming to reality.
In the words of the governor; “The equipment is a special system that will process, freeze and prepare chicken for export. It is very digital, modern and highly sophisticated that takes into consideration the bio-medical status of our chicken.”
The governor added; “So, this gives us the opportunity as a government to create jobs through the instrumentality of the agro-industrial value chain and I am happy that today we have taken delivery of all this equipment to fast track the process of wealth and job creation.”
It is these wealth and job creation and other economic benefits of the investments that we wish to highlight and bring to the fore their potential in changing the fortunes of Cross River State and its people.
In the poultry sector, Nigeria’s annual demand for the poultry value chain is over NGN500bn. Presently it stands at 165 million birds and 650,000 metric tonnes of eggs and 290,000 metric tonnes of meat are demanded annually according to records.
Beyond the local consumption, export of the poultry meat is expected to further raise this expected demand.
Consumption data compiled by the FAO reveal that global poultry meat uptake had increased from 11kg per person in 2000 to a record 14.4kg in 2011. Global poultry meat uptake was also forecast to increase by 1.7kg per person from around 13.2kg to in 2013 to 14.9kg in 2023.
With a prevailing market price for poultry meat in Nigeria being about NGN1,000 per kg and the demand of expected to reach NYN1 trillion locally, if the state targets just 10 percent of the market share, it is expected to earn over N100 billion from the plant annually.
The poultry farm and the frozen chicken plant is expected to provide about one hundred direct jobs and more than one thousand indirect jobs in the state. The export of the product in addition will earn foreign exchange for Nigeria.
Next let us consider the Cross River State Garment Factory which is also located in the Ayade Industrial Park in Calabar.
Recently also, the governor’s industrial revolution received a major boost with the international recognition for the Cross River State garment factory which secured Federal Government license for the exportation of its products.
This followed the presentation of export registration certificate by the Executive Director/CEO of Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo to the State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade.
With this, Cross River Garment Factory is expected to set the standard internationally as the focus will not just be the local market but ultimately export, taking advantage of the African Growth And Opportunity Act (AGOA)
The global garment industry is one of the great economic success stories of the past few decades. Over that period, the industry has grown at 5.5 percent annually, according to the McKinsey Global Fashion Index, to now be worth an estimated $2.4 trillion.
With the state targeting only a fraction of a hundred of this market share annually, it woukd be earning over 200 billion Naira annually.
The garment factory has created about one thousand direct and more than five thousand indirect jobs in Cross River State with promise of about two thousand more jobs to come.
With all these, it is clear that Senator Professor Ben Ayade is set to take Cross River State to economic eldorado, create jobs for its citizens and wean it off federally allocated revenue. This is worthy of the support of all Cross Riverians.
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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