To boost agriculture and food security, Israeli investors have expressed the commitment to establish a multi-million solar powered farm in Rivers and other states in the South-South zone of Nigeria.
Rivers State in Niger Delta suffers food shortages with high prices despite its agricultural potentials as a result of climate change impacts ranging from flooding, erosion and low crop yield.
The project, which is to be sited in Eleme and Kalabari communities, will provide jobs for no fewer than two thousand persons when completed.
The project partner and entrepreneur, Prince Tonye Princewill, revealed this during a meeting with journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Princewill, a former gubernatorial candidate in the state, revealed that there is already available land for the project. He said part of the project will also include a low-cost housing estate that will solve housing problems for thousands of residents of the state.
He noted the need for peace in the state, pointing out that the negative narrative about the state was affecting investment opportunities.
His words: “We are killing two birds with one stone with the solar farm. One is that we are taking advantage of the land to create farms that are sustainable. We are going to bring in huge investments.
“The plan is that after 15 years, the investments are going to be handed over to local partners and the investment is obviously going to be quite huge. It is coming in from Israel and the land is already in place. All we want is for government to ensure that the place is secure.
“We want to use some of the land for low-cost housing. We are prepared to give it to the government because we are aware government is interested in low-cost housing; so, there’s a low-cost housing aspect to it and there is a farm aspect to it.
“We believe that the solar farm will even provide power to the low-cost housing. So, it’s an all-integrated, all-encompassing project which I think is going to be a revolution.
“Apart from the fact that we don’t need national grid to power the farms, we are talking about employment; we are talking about empowerment; we are talking about reducing food prices.
“Israel has moved from desert to farming. So, we are working with people who are experts in making the best and becoming crop producers.”
On the political crisis in the state, Princewill stated that, “The most important thing now is peace and security. Convincing people here that these investments is valid in an area where what they read in the paper is crisis, crisis, crisis is our biggest challenge.
“But if we have the government on board and we get the government to ensure that security and integrity of the project is guaranteed this is fantastic”.
He said: “We are talking about employing over 2,000 people in the farm alone, not to talk about the empowerment that will come from other parts. I think that the opportunities are huge, it just requires the right thing to deliver and I think on our own side, we are prepared”.
Blessing Ibunge
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