The General Manager of Adapalm Nigeria Ltd, Ohaji/Egbema of Imo State, Chief Goody Esom Obodo, has disclosed that the state government was yet to inject funds to reinvigorate the oil palm milling industry in the state.
He said that he has neither received any allocation nor subvention from the government to run the affairs of the establishment, except money for the payment of salaries of staff.
The Adapalm boss told members of Niger Delta Media Forum (NDMF) during a media interaction in his office at the industry, on Thursday, that the funds generated from the industry were used for the day to day maintenance of the place.
The former Commissioner for Commerce and Industry said that the industry had entered into a partnership with some agencies for the purpose of actualising its target.
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While he identified funding as a major challenge already bedevilling the success of the industry, Chief Obodo pointed out the need for the establishment of a new mill that has the required production capacity of 30 turns and above per hour.
He said that the package for a new mill had already been completed, but waiting for the funds to actualise it in the end.
The General Manager declared that for Adapalm Industry, which was established 1963, by the late Micheal Okpara, the Premier of the old Eastern Region to come back alive, the major source of the company such as the plantation and the mill should be looked into.
Chief Obodo informed the journalists that the management planned to uproot all the abandoned palms at the nucleus by the Whiteman who were the former managers of the industry.
According to him, the nursery palms were abandoned at a place and following that, they could not be planted properly to replace the already existing but ageing palms, dismissing completely, that no part of the palm plantation owned by the industry had been taken away by communities.
Obodo said that the only problems with the plantation had to do with poachers, maintaining that the management was already dealing with them in line with the security structure put in place.
Chief Obodo who later took the media round the renovated administrative block of the industry that was for long abandoned, informed them that the structure awaited commissioning by the governor.
No funds to reinvigorate Adapalm Nig Ltd Ohaji yet
and then