Cross River State Commissioner for Commence and Industry, Rosemary Archibong has decried the non-use of Calabar Port by citizens of the state and exporters, saying “we cannot have a seaport and be lamenting on how to export products to other parts of the world.”
The Commissioner made the observation at the weekend during a one-day Export Workshop on Planning Export organised by the Calabar office of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) in collaboration with Neighborhood Development and Empowerment organisation (NDEO).
Archibong, who lamented that the Calabar Port was lying idle with few activities as compared to Onne and Lagos Ports, stressed that there was no local government in the state that cannot boast of at least five exportable products in all the eighteen LGAs.
“We have enormous capacity in fish, cocoa, vegetables, limestone, rice, groundnut, among others, but the problem is the political will; my ministry is here to guard the participants,” she said.
In a welcome address by the Trade Promotion Advisor of (NEPC), Emmanuel Etim, he said the workshop was a clear demonstration of the Federal Government continuous efforts to spearhead the diversification of the Nigerian economy away from the oil sector through the promotion and development of the non-oil export sub-sector of the national economy.
He revealed that NEPC is motivated by the fact that Cross River is richly endowed with golden green economy of agro-allied products like palm oil, cassava, fish, among others.
In her speech, the managing director of Neghbourhood Empowerment, Valarie Henshaw said her organisation was borne out of passion for self employment, discovery, leadership, entrepreneurship, capacity and creation of wealth in order to attain financial freedom.
