By Admin.
Prof. Susan Ohen’s Multi-Stakeholders Committee on Cocoa, Coffee, and Oil Palm which has just been inaugurated by Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River has swung into action to deliver on her task within the specified period of 90 days.
The Committee in her meeting held in Marian Hotel, Calabar, that had in attendance, the Cross River State Commissioner of Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Mr. Johnson Ebokpo, witnessed commitment, passion, and optimism from her members committed to making sure that a prosperous Cross River State emerges from the agricultural sector as they proposed outlines, contents, work plan, timeline and constituted sub-committees.
In his overview of the Committee’s terms of reference, Mr. Ebokpo restated the Committee is saddled with the mandate to develop a comprehensive 7- year Strategic Plan for Cocoa, Coffee, and Oil Palm, design a Policy framework for Cocoa and Coffee Development, Mobilise Resources for the establishment of Six new Cocoa Estates and develop institutional framework for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment, among others.
The Commissioner emphasised building relationships among the respective value chain players to achieve a holistic plan that will give clarity and also fit for Government, Private Sector, and Development Partners, adding that whatever affects the downstream can also affect the upstream sectors of the value chains and vice versa.
Ebokpo, therefore called on both sectors to work symbiotically to achieve a common purpose of ensuring food security, increasing the volume of investors scouting for the crops, creating jobs and wealth for the people, and boosting productivity among the three crop value chains stated above; as he charged the Committee to translate their intellectual prowess to tangible results as the administration of Governor Bassey Otu is hoping to discourage revenue extraction from raw commodities but rather encourage extraction of revenue from value addition.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the Committee Prof Susan Ohen thanked members for embracing the huge but very important responsibility to develop the State’s comprehensive 7- year Strategic Plan for Cocoa, Coffee, and Oil Palm Policy that will Institutionalise the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Investment model, as she proceeded to set-up sub-committees of Production, Processing and Value Addition, Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Finance and Investment, Marketing and Promotion, and Cross-Cutting Issues: Sustainability and Environmental Impact, gender, Subcommittee respectively.
She promised on behalf of the Committee whose composition has notable experts in their respective fields would deliver as anticipated by His Excellency and within the specified time frame as well.
Some Stakeholders present at the meeting delivered goodwill messages as they pledged their commitment to the success of the assignment, and notably were the Commissioner for Commerce, Dr. (Mrs.) Abigail Duke, Chairman of the Internal Revenue Service, Prince Edwin Okon, Chairman, Forestry Commission, Hon. George Oben-Etchi, and Rt. Hon. Daniel Asuquo and many others.
