By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Emeka Ihedioha of Imo state yesterday said his government in partnership with the autonomous communities in the state are planning to plant four million palm trees in the state come 2020.
Ihedioha who disclosed this during the Imo state stakeholders luncheon held in Owerri, said that his aim was to create an industrial hub with the planting of the palm trees in the state.
He started by saying: “Upon assumption of office, we mobilized N500Million counterpart funding to the World Bank, thereby attracting N13.5 billion from the Bank, under its Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP).
“Currently, we are constructing 58 rural road projects covering 380.7 kilometres across the 25 Local Government areas under this programme.
“The State’s Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Programme is on high gear. This involves the reconstruction and modernization of the four major technical colleges in the State located at Owerri, Ahiara, Okporo-orlu and Osu Mbano.
“We also intend to rehabilitate our schools from primary to the tertiary levels. Accordingly, machinery has been activated to close the manpower gaps in our schools while various visitation panels have been set up to look into ways we can overhaul our tertiary institutions for quality, discipline and affordability.
“We promised to work towards achieving Universal Health Coverage for Imolites. To this effect, we have earmarked 1 per cent of the consolidated revenue fund for healthcare and have re-launched the Imo Health Insurance Scheme.
“We are poised to achieve food security and agricultural revolution in the State in line with our stated policy. We launched a Youth-in-Agriculture programme and have trained over 600 youths in various forms of agricultural production and agro-business skills.
“The Rice Mill in Ihitte- Uboma has been revived with Arondiuzogu mills coming up next January. This Christmas, many homes in Imo State would be eating rice planted, processed and packaged in Imo State. The state’s ADAPALM has been is being revived while we have brought a viable investor for the Avutu Poultry Farm.”
He pointed out that “In another breath, we are partnering with various autonomous communities to plant over 4 Million oil palm seedlings beginning from next year. We believe that oil palm still holds great potential for building a strong industrial base for the State in the coming years.
“Our efforts at promoting investment is yielding positive results. We allocated land to AfrExim Bank, in Owerri, to build its regional quality assurance centre for the South-East and South-South zones.
The facility is estimated at over $50million (N18Billion) and would surely boost our economy and commercial profile. Today also, we have six airlines now operating different routes to and from the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, making us the third busiest airport in Nigeria.”
Culled from Vanguard.