Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, has expressed happiness with the progress of work at the groundnut oil processing factory in Nyanya, Bekwarra Local Government Area of the state.
The 12,000 litres per hour groundnut oil processing mill is part of Ayade’s one industry per local government policy.
Speaking shortly after inspecting ongoing work at the factory, the governor disclosed his reason for the siting of the mill, hinting that “this local government is known to be the largest producer of groundnuts and indeed the best quality in Nigeria.
“A lot of people from Northern Nigeria call me and ask me to send Bekwarra groundnut, so I started wondering what was so special about Bekwarra groundnut.”
In fulfillment of his promise of an industry to the people of Bekwarra, Ayade said: “So as part of my industrialization policy of one industry to a local government, we take advantage of the raw material in Bekwarra.
“So being the largest producer of groundnut in the whole of Nigeria, I decided to set up a vegetable oil plant.”
On the installed capacity of the factory, the governor hinted that “the vegetable oil plant is projected to mill 12,000 litres per hour on completion, producing natural vegetable oil from groundnut”.
“So we have a system where the groundnut comes fresh from the farm, goes through a drying and deshelling process and further down to a granulation and frying from where it goes through a pressing session to a refinery and finally it goes through the bottling line,” he said.
