Governor Udom Emmanuel has declared 21 August 2021 as Akwa Ibom state coconut day, when 300,000 nuts will be planted to boost coconut production in preparation for the start of operation of the coconut oil refinery.
Commissioner for Information & Strategy Comrade Ini Ememobong disclosed this in a statement on 8 July 2021.
The disclosure was made after a meeting of the Akwa Ibom state executive council, presided by Governor Emmanuel.
The Coconut Factory is located in Mkpat Enin local government area of the State.
All Facts News understands no fewer than 1,300 direct job opportunities are to be created for the teeming youths in Akwa Ibom at the St. Gabriel’s Coconut factory when it becomes operational in September this year.
More than 3,000 others will be employed indirectly.
“We still need those Indians because a lot of them will take up training our locals and they will also take part in technology transfer to our locals so our prayer is that the situation in Indian improves so they can be allowed to travel and interact with other people,” Governor Emmanuel said in May while inspecting the installation of production lines at the factory.
“We should be able to troubleshoot certain things, take for example once we are not processing coconut, we should also have a production line that can process palm kernel oil without changing a pan because we are very rich in palm kernels in this region,” he added.
The Architect, VKS construction, Ganze Aydingenc, said the Coconut factory can process 300,000 coconuts per shift, which will produce 66 tons in a day from three shifts of production while employing 300 people to work in a shift.