BENIN CITY- Edo State Governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki said the goal of his administration is to have 100,000 hectares of oil palm plantation in the state within the next three years.
He made this known when he received members of Plantation Owners Forum of Nigeria (POFON) led by the Chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Ibru who were on a courtesy visits to government house in Benin City, Edo State.
Obaseki said he has visited some countries in Asia, precisely Indonesia and Malaysia in a bid to re-defined the oil palm industry in the state. “We are very endowed and we pride ourselves as been one of the leading oil palm production states in Nigeria where investors are showing significant interest”.
“You will recall that one of the workshops we had in agriculture was to set out a team for oil palm and many of your members where part of that team to produce an Oil Palm road map for us which we have been working to implement”.
He said in the state oil palm is prolific in Ovia, Orhiomwon and Uhunwonde local government areas. “We clearly have in excess of 500,000 hectares of land available.
“There are a lot of land grabbers but as a government, we have set up a committee that is currently reviewing the trend of land allocation situation in the state and would come up with decisions on how to address the issue”.
Earlier, the chairman of POFON Mr. Emmanuel Ibru congratulated the governor for the victories at many fronts in the course of ascending the position as governor of the state.
He said POFON members own and represent the majority of privately owned oil palm and rubber plantations in Nigeria including those situated within Edo State. He said the body main interest is to protect the existing investments of members as well as showcasing to attract new investors into the country.
“Our interventions at different times have helped greatly to achieve a stable policy environment at the national level. The policy stability has resulted in the rising profile of investments that have been witnessed in the last five years in Nigeria with Edo State accounting for more than sixty per cent”.
He added that the body is on the visit to deliberate on three germane issues namely; availability and access to land for oil palm development in the state; land use charge and security of existing and new investment
