Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Dutch multinational, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, says it has already invested the sum of $3.6million into the Rivers State cassava processing project.
The project, according to Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is a $12 million cassava processing initiative, which is expected to create 3,000 jobs and enhance the Gross Domestic Product of the country.
Speaking, SPDC External Relations Manager, Mr Igo Weli, said Shell’s investment of $3.6 Million into the project, was a mark of its commitment to boost food security and enhance job creation in the state.
Weli spoke during a meeting with the board of the Rivers Cassava Processing Company Limited at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
Also, the Managing Director of the company, Reuben Giesen, said the facility will run on environment friendly power from the Rivers State Independent Power Plant in Afam, thus, setting the pace for industrialisation of the area.
Giesen said the State government and its partners, the Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), have keyed into the cassava production policy of the Federal Government.
Earlier, the Rivers State Commissioner of Agriculture, Dr. Fred Kpakor, explained that the cassava processing plant located in Afam, Oyigbo LGA, has the capacity to process 45,000MT of cassava tuber to produce 12,500MT of high quality cassava flour.
Kpakor added that the plant will create over 3000 jobs, and that in the medium term, the company, will add starch to its products as well as glucose in the future.