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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State (1537 Views)
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With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by zuchyblink(m): 12:21pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
The Ebonyi State Government seems bent
on discovering its potentialities. The 15-
year old state has been through hurdles of
infancy, grooming and now at adolescence.
It has been one of the lowest economically
rated states, but it might be gearing
towards saying ‘never again’.
The states of the nation live as beggars –
arms stretched towards Abuja for the
monthly stipend that keeps them going. But
today, the state has resolved to create new
avenues that would lift its standing and
possibly place it on a pedestal of economic
self-reliance.
The state is not known to be one of the
heavyweights of the nation but the
government says it is just in
misrepresentation of facts. “The real and
actual facts are rather the opposite of what
Ebonyi is known for. The state is an
economic hotbed with the natural
endowments that dot the entire landscape.
There is hardly any state in the nation that
equals Ebonyi in natural resources. I can talk
with full assurance and all vehemence that
Ebonyi is naturally the richest state in the
nation. There are over 25 solid minerals in
the state at commercial quantity that wait to
be explored.”
In a chat with Saturday Sun, the state
Commissioner for Cement Production and
Minerals Development, Prince Sunny
Ugwuocha, sounded upbeat that the state
has found its economic bearing and will
soon be on the cruise for financial
independence. The ministry he heads is a
new one, and he said the reason the
governor, Chief Martin Elechi created it is to
make sure the policy of solid minerals
development in the state gets full and
unimpeded impetus.
“With the elaborate plans I was briefed of
by Governor Elechi, there is serious
business about to commence here in the
state. The governor has clear ideas on how
to leverage the natural potentials of the
state to grow strong internal economy for
the state. And in pursuit of such goals, you
naturally start from the most available
incentives you have. The notion that Ebonyi
is a weak and poor state is just in
conjecture. The state in history has
endowments and those are the things the
state governor wants to develop. The
ministry I head is new and just created. That
is why I have always seen my duty as
extraordinary and tasking. But I might think
he knows what he wants by sending me
there. I have been a technical person all my
career years, and coming from the private
sector as an employer of labour who has
weathered the economic rough terrain of
Nigeria on my own, I have every
expectation of a bright weather ahead. The
governor has given and repeatedly
emphasised to me his resolve to make the
state stand out by developing the mineral
resources.
Out of ignorance or because the people
never applied their priorities right, the state
has been seen over time economically poor
and backward. While people say this, they
forget that Nigercem, that unbeatable
cement plant, the largest Nigeria had for
over 40 unbroken years is located in the
present Ebonyi State. Anything structure
you can remember in the eastern part of
Nigeria was built with cement from Nkalagu
(Nigercem) The Niger Bridge at Onitsha, the
city of Enugu, Onitsha, Abakaliki, Owerri,
Port Harcourt, Calabar and beyond with the
structures that make them were built with
cement from Nigercem. It was unbeatable.
And ironically, the limestone and gypsum
that ran the cement plant were mined in the
state. I assure you factually that the seams
have not been exhausted. The two principal
raw materials are still lying idle and dormant
there waiting to be tapped. In fact, in
addition to the gypsum find that kept
Nigercem going, another deposit has been
found in Edda and Azu Inyaba in Izzi. The
data available in my office is that there are
well over 25 solid minerals in commercial
quantity in the state ready for extraction.
In places like Enyigba, there is granite, gold
and lead and the people know there are
there as the federal government had in the
past issued mining rights to people.”
Before Elechi created a full ministry of
minerals development, there had been a sub
ministry of solid minerals headed by a
special adviser. In about 2008, Dr. Ifeanyi
Ikeh was in charge of the portfolio, and he
had something akin to a geology lab replete
with a display of an array of minerals
samples obtained from the mines in the
state. The day Saturday Sun visited his
office in Abakaliki in February 2008, he
studiously showed the reporter round.
The issue today which Prince Ugwuocha
champions has been the case in the past,
but he assures that the intention is clearer
and more serious today – it is to woo
investors and miners to the state to tap the
resources and keep the state busy.
“The procedure is easy and we want to
implement it now. My duty is to work out
the modality set by the governor – to scout
for investors in the sector who will build
their base in the state, extract the minerals
and put them into use. Through that, there
would be employment for idle hands and
the state’s economy will be enriched. In the
past there had been arrangements that
never actually got much success where
investors came and left thereafter. We have
a better arrangement now.
The governor has spelt out what the state
wants and he has made sure all the
incentives that never existed before are in
place now with the full compliments of the
new ministry. I have an obligation to
nurture it into growth, and that is why we
urge investors to come. Just get in touch
with the local community, indicate what you
want and consult our office, we are there to
make sure the processes of getting the
licence in Abuja to mine is made easy for
such investor. My office would do
everything possible to facilitate easy and
short procedure so that the investor can
move into the site immediately. My promise
from the mandate I have from the chief
executives is that there would be no
bottlenecks. I will oversee most of the
processes to make sure it works, and fast
too.
We want the Nigercem revived or an
alternative plant built, and the governor
made that very clear. We want more cement
plants and we want miners to tap the
limestone and gypsum.
I remember very well reading in your paper
in March this year the abandoned or
neglected oil finds in South East Nigeria. One
of the finds is in Edda, here in the state and
your records which my office can attest as
authentic has it that the Edda oil is the
oldest in Nigeria. There is no dispute about
it. These endowments have been lying idle
for a long time, we want them tapped and
the state developed.”
The commissioner said the present move
would be the culmination of past efforts by
the state government to take this decisive
step of exposing the mineral resource base
of the state by creating a full ministry to
handle the task. It had in the past done
some number of things in this direction
right from the days of Governor Sam Egwu
who also had an adviser on solid minerals. A
good instance is the invitation of Chinese
and Canadian experts in about 2007 that
brought in equipment and manpower to aid
in exploration and detection of the minerals
in the state.
One of the few well-explored solid minerals
in the state are granite and bitumen. The
Crushed Rocks Company has been old in
Ishiagu. With some other extraction
companies, the state had in the past been
reaping some gold from this solid
endowment. It got heightened when some
four years ago the giant Julius Berger
discovered an endless seam of granite at
Akpoha along the Abakaliki-Afikpo road. The
company with its heavy machines has been
tearing and searing the land surface and
tens of truck-load of granite leave the
quarry everyday. It is also the same in the
Abakaliki metropolis where smaller granite
mines are busy all year round extracting
and crushing rocks for use in construction
all over the east of the nation.
If Prince Ugwuocha’s ministry gets its acts
right and with the right incentives, the state,
with the higher aim of the governor, may
be on the verge of better economic pedestal
through minerals development and the
cement production rave it targets. |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by dapsoneh: 12:21pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
G |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by zuchyblink(m): 12:21pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by Nobody: 12:48pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Ebonyi our last born is really recording an exponential growth. God bless alaIgbo God bless Nigeria 2 Likes |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by Nobody: 12:49pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
dapsoneh: G = Gbagologbada |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by Nobody: 12:55pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Ebonyi is the wealthiest state in terms of mineral resources in Igboland yet Ebonyi is the poorest state in both human and economic resources in igboland. Ebonyi must be free, Ebonyi must rise 1 Like |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by iykebest1(m): 1:05pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Ebonyi. Great pple. I can like their rice ehhh |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by EastLebanon(m): 1:27pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Everyday hundreds of truck come to this state to upload granite chippings,my question is,where are all those money going to,julius berger's granite querry in the state is enough to transform the state, instead the state is getting poorer.what is wrong?,they have one of the largest limestone and granite deposit in the nation but the dividends is not present in the state. EBONYIANS,WAKE UP. |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by asha80(m): 1:51pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
EastLebanon:first cement companies must be encouraged to set up plants in the state likewise other outfits that the solid minerals in ebonyi are there primary resource not frustrating them (ibeto and elechi issues) |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by zendy: 2:31pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Ebonyi state has everything, Oil, limestone, cement. The state is the largest food producer in Igbo land and probably had the largest deposit of solid minerals as well. It's just unfortunate that the state has lagged behind other Igbo States because of lack of visionary leaders |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by Udmaster(m): 3:03pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Nice one.. God bless the South East. |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by ogb5(m): 3:04pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
Op. Kindly edit your post and put it in paragraphs. |
Re: With 25 Untapped Solid Minerals, Ebonyi Woos Investors-a Script On Ebonyi State by mrvitalis(m): 3:07pm On Aug 30, 2015 |
We the young generation of igbos will harness all out resources and we will use it to develop our region..... |
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