Minister decries politicisation of cocoa industry

Sen. John Uwan-Enoh, the Minister of State for Industry, says politicisation of the cocoa industry has led to the under-development of the sector.

Uwan-Enoh said in an interview with newsmen in Calabar on Monday, that the cocoa industry had remained under-developed despite the abundance of the cash crop.

Talking about the case of Cross River, the minister said that several efforts to establish a cocoa industry in the state were frustrated because of politics.

“There was an attempt to establish a cocoa industry in the state by a past administration, that effort did not work,” he said.

He said that the people of Cross River and Nigerians at large, would benefit immensely from any effort that could translate cocoa raw materials to finished goods.

“I think that from the beginning, people have played a lot of politics with the establishment of the cocoa industry in the state.

“By now, we should be talking about industries, no country attains development without industrialisation. I want to be remembered for my strides in this sector,” he said.

Uwan-Enoh said that with the cocoa estates established by the then Eastern Region, Cross River remained the second largest producer of cocoa in Nigeria.

Uwan-Enoh said that the Federal Government and the African Development Bank, were partnering to develop special agric economic zones with eight states selected in the pilot stage.

“This idea was conceived by the administration of the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, it has an approval of about 500 million dollars.

“With such partnership, we should be able to stop the exportation of raw cocoa, we should add value to it for the benefit of the country

“Fortunately, Cross River is among the states with cocoa, which is one of the crops to be developed,” he said.