Announcing the plans at the
governor’s conference room in Calabar, Torbjorn Johansson, the leader of the
team and President of the firm, said they needed degraded land to establish the
pulp mill.
Swedish investor and
President, Greenland Resources, Mr. TorbJorn Johansson (standing) giving
insights into the proposed 1.5m tones pulp mill to be sited in Calabar while
the Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade (R) and Managing Director
of the company, Mr. Mikael Kroon,keenly listen during their visit to Government
House, Calabar.
The efforts of Ben Ayade,
the governor of Cross Rivers state to change the economic landscape of the
state received another boost on Thursday, August 18, as a Swedish firm,
Greenland Resources, announced plans to establish a pulp mill that will
generate a total of 1.5 million tones yearly.
Johansson who said the
establishment of the mill will not have any adverse effect on the state’s eco
system said “the mill has no forest of interest for its establishment and
deforestation of natural forest is out of question.”
The president explained
that the choice of Cross River for the mill which will create about 14,500 jobs
was owing to its peace and security.
“After travelling round the
world, his team found the state to be second to none on terms of peace and
security.
“This country has a big
population, great workforce and the security in Cross River is the best.
“We have been trying round
the world to find a place to site the firm and were very close to giving up,
but the Sweden Embassy in Nigeria advised us to come to Calabar, so we are here
and it is nice to see the investor-friendly Governor Ben Ayade,” he said.
The president maintained
that besides the creation of jobs for the citizenry, the pulp mill will
increase the country’s export with over 1.2 billion dollars yearly.
Johansson also disclosed
that “Bio fuel, viscos, bio plastic products as well as raw materials for
carbon fiber can be produced in the pulp mill frame,” pointing out that “final
product will be directed to international and domestic paper manufacturers.”
On finances, the team
leader explained that such will be sourced from investment and commercial
banks, including other investors with which negotiations were ongoing.
Responding, Governor Ayade
assured that his administration will support the execution of the project,
noting that creating more than 14,000 jobs would be a huge relief for
government.
“We will do all we can as a
government to support you. We are excited about your project.
“I know what comes out of
this. Fourteen thousand jobs is a huge relief for me as a government because
14,000 means 1.4 million people feeding from 14,000, given the African
brotherhood and love for each other.
“We are ready to fast track
the documentation process to ensure that you get the facilities you are
seeking,” he said.
He charged the relevant
commissioners to ensure necessary support for the speedy commencement of the
project.
However, efforts by the
Cross River state government to diversify its economy also received a major
boost with the arrival of the management team of Thai-African Corporation
Limited (TACL) in Calabar for the commencement of the development of a ‘rice
city’.
The project was estimated
to cost over $4 million to be cited along the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan bypass
and will be take six months to be completed.
Inspecting the project
site, Mrs Pantipa Dhanagom, the managing director of TACL, acknowledged that
the scheme will be a rice seedling centre producing the best rice seed to be
grown in the area.
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