Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State took office in 2015 with industrialisation as one of the key areas of focus of his administration. Udom, a private sector player in the financial sector for over two decades, understood very well that for Akwa Ibom to shed its status of the purely civil service state it had been since its creation for one that could be economically self-sustaining, it needed to have a strong industrial base.
The governor resorted to self-help for the state by way of rapid industrialisation to address the anomaly of Akwa Ibom being the largest producer of the country’s wealth but not having any federal presence in form of an industrial establishment.
He therefore set to work with a firm promise to reposition the state and turn it into not only the destination of choice for investors both within and outside the country, but also one with opportunities for growth, with the long term goal of enhanced living standards for its people.
He designed a road map that would guide his administration in the onerous task of lifting the state out of the backwaters of industrial under development to one that would be a hub of industrial activities. This, he did, by first of all creating the conducive atmosphere that is needed to make investments thrive.
More than three years into the life of his administration, and with just about five months before the curtain falls in his first term, about nine fully functional industries stand as testimony of Udom’s commitment to the industrialisation of a state that had virtually no economic base before his coming. This is a record, when it is considered that the immediate past administration in the state had no industrial establishment to show in its eight years of existence.
As a matter of fact, it did not take more than two years in office for Udom’s efforts at industrialising Akwa Ibom to begin to attract attention through concrete evidence. At the commemoration of the state’s 30th anniversary in September, 2017, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was in the state to commission two industries that would have direct impact on not only Akwa Ibom, but the entire country – electricity metering Solutions Company and a syringe manufacturing company reputed to be the largest in Africa. It was an occasion at which Osinbjao put aside political sentiments to commend excellence which, truly speaking, has no political colour.
An early indication that the metering company would live up to its expectation and serve the desired purpose was the fact that no sooner had it been commissioned than it received orders for one million meters from power distribution companies in the Niger Delta region, notably the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company.
The Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company, arguably the flagship industrial project of Udom’s administration so far, has capacity to produce 400 million syringes annually. The company is more than four times the size and capacity of a similar company in South Africa, previously the biggest in Africa, which produces 95 million syringes a year.
The Peacock Paints Industry at Etinan is the only surviving industrial establishment from the Clement Isong era of the Second Republic. For more than two decades, the industry remained comatose, with only its carcass still standing as a reminder of what it was in some distant past. Udom’s industrialization drive has seen resuscitation of the once moribund industry, such that it is today producing at full capacity.
The administration has constructed a state-of-the-art flour mill at Okat, in Onna Local Government area to meet the demand for the commodity in the state and its environs. There is also the Toothpick and Pencil Manufacturing Company that was initially located at Etinan, but had to be relocated to the Akwa Ibom Enterprise and Employment Scheme (AKEES) Mini Industrial Estate at Itam, in Itu Local Government Area, which accommodates other cottage industries like the Paper and Pulp Industry, Plastic Manufacturing Company and Hydro Form Block Molding Company. Greenwell Technologies, a fertilizer blending company, is currently in operation at Oku-Abak, in Abak Local Government Area.
The Udom administration has set up the Akwa Prime Hatchery and Poultry at Uruan as a major source of poultry products in the state, in its effort to guarantee food sufficiency in the state. The state-of-the-art poultry is the first of its kind in the state and environs. The government has taken advantage of the growing worldwide demand for cassava to establish 33 new cassava processing plants in different parts of the state, while also investing in the refurbishment of existing plants at Ikot Okudom, Eket Local Government Area; Nnung Udoe, Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area and Ikot Ekang, in Abak Local Government Area.
The only federal industrial establishment in Akwa Ibom – the Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company at Oku-Iboku, Itu Local Government Area – has been moribund from the military era. A failed attempt at transferring it into private hands during the privatization exercise of the Obasanjo administration has seen the once vibrant industry remain a shadow of its former self, and the entire premises overgrown with weeds.
Governor Emmanuel has expressed a desire to see the industry come back to life to help in the state’s industrialization drive. The governor is, however, handicapped by the fact that his government cannot do anything of its own without the involvement of federal authorities. His interest in seeing the company come back to live underscores the commitment of a man that is in a hurry to place the state prominently in the country’s industrial map.
When Udom announced that he was going to build a coconut refinery in the state, critics scoffed at the idea, wondering where the state would get the quantity of coconut required to run a refinery. The answer to that question is a coconut plantation that is currently being cultivated to feed the refinery that is to be sited at Mkpat Enin Local Government Area. Products from the refinery will not only meet local demand for refined coconut oil, but would also fetch the state substantial foreign exchange, because of its high demand in the international market.
The government has entered into an agreement with a Mexican investor to bring in 2000 herds of cattle into the state to be kept at a ranch for which landscaping is currently being carried out. The plan is to have a steady source of meat and milk, both for consumption and for a yoghurt industry the government is proposing to establish.
Tied to Udom’s industrialisation efforts is a robust job creation programme that is aimed at creating employment, boosting the economy of the state and improving the standard of living of the people. All the industries he has set up so far are playing those roles. In the last three years, more than 20, 000 youths have been trained on skills acquisition in various fields in a bid to promote the spirit of enterprise among them, with more than 3, 000 trained in information communication and technology.
Plans are underway for the establishment of a modern and well equipped artisan school that would create a new class of artisans to be involved in the various industrial and commercial projects the government is setting up. This would eliminate the practice of having low-class artisans from the streets of Asia come to the country to pass off as technical experts, taking away the jobs of Nigerians that are in all ways better suited for the jobs. It would also discourage the practice of importing such low-class artisans as bricklayers, painters and carpenters from neighbouring West African countries.
More than 317, 000 people are currently engaged in small and medium enterprises, all beneficiaries of the government’s drive aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among the people. There is a feeling in Akwa Ibom that if Udom can achieve so much in so short a time, it can only be left to the imagination what he can achieve over a longer period.
END
Be the first to comment