GOV. SAM EGWU APPLAUDS CLOSE TIES WITH RMRDC

-                     Chuks Ngaha

 The Executive Governor of Ebonyi state, His Excellency, Dr. Sam Ominyi Egwu has said that the current efforts by his government towards re-writing the industrial development landscape of Ebonyi can only be fully realized if the collaboration it has with the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) was sustained. He stated that the intervention of the Council, in the state, had made it possible for the establishment of many viable Resource-based cottage industries.  

Gov. Egwu, speaking through the state’s Commissioner for Industry and Commerce, Mazi Ben C. Akpa, who led a delegation of officials from the Ministry, on coutesy call on the Director General of the Council, Engr. (Prof.) Peter Azikiwe Onwualu, recently, therefore expressed his personal gratitude to the DG for accepting to collaborate with the Ebonyi state Government to develop its natural resources. 

The governor said his state, was anxious to develop, and had therefore embarked on a number of projects that were grass-root oriented. Some of these projects, he said, included the Ebonyi Salt Project, which was started by his administration to take full advantages of abundant salt deposits in the state. He said a large number of rural women had been put on the project but regretted that little economic gain has been made because the used traditional methods, which had been found to be slow and time-consuming. He therefore called for the Council’s intervention the following areas, even as he acknowledged the support from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), whom he said had supported efforts in this regard with solar technology:

-        Improvement of the salt production technology;

-        changing the energy source for salt manufacturing to briquettes from the abundant rice husks in the state;

-        carrying out analysis of the salt to ensure the elimination of lead zinc and other impurities;

-        embarking on product development and export value addition;

-        developing the Enyingba salt mine as a large- scale salt production plant. 

In addition, the state government wanted the Council to support its Small Business Development Center, a center that had already been equipped by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) for training and rendering consultancy services to small business entrepreneurs in the state. The Council, in this regard was requested to provide the technical and financial support required to make the center meet the demands of the 21^st century small business, and to intervene in the area of comprehensive IT facility necessary to upgrade the capacity of Ebonyi youths for self sustainability and productivity. 

The Ebonyi state Government also expressed their desire to collaborate with Council in the area of sourcing energy from rice husks. According to Mazi Akpa, the state Government was currently collaborating with UNIDO on resource assessment studies and the required baseline gathering of the project, but needed the Council’s assistance and support to develop this important source of alternative energy.