Local Government Area will soon come on stream.
Governor Nyesom Wike who stated this Thursday after inspecting the
plant, pointed out that the company when fully operational would employ
4,500 persons and also boost agriculture in the state.
He stated that the State Government has 70 percent equity share in the
project which is in partnership with Shell Petroleum Development
Company(SPDC) of Nigeria.
“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, ” the governor stated.
Earlier, the Managing Director of the Rivers State Cassava Processing
Company, Ruben Giesen noted that the cassava processing plant when
completed would increase income for small holder farmers by providing an
enabling environment for them to sell their cassava tubers.
He also disclosed that the plant would produce about 45 thousand metric
tons of cassava flour daily while about 12 thousand metric tons of
cassava tubers would be needed for collection by its mobile plants from
farmers around the state for processing.
Mr. Giesen commended the State Governor for embarking on the project,
which he described as the first of its kind in sub-saharan Africa.