By Anastacia Eluwa, Asaba
Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori on Tuesday said his administration would leverage on the game changing potentials of the Special Agricultural Economic Zones to create over 50,000 jobs for the wellbeing and economic prosperity of the people.
Governor Oborevwori said the programme would enhance food security, agro-processing, employment creation, export earnings, infrastructural development with its overall effect on the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He disclosed this when he received officials of the African Development Bank, (ADB), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), National Cereal Research Institute (NCRI) led by Dr Chuma Ezedinma at Government House, Asaba.
The Governor thanked the delegation for short listing Delta State among the successful states for the programme, assuring that his administration would do everything possible to make the programme a success.
He said: “I welcome you all on this final mission to assess our readiness for the establishment and implementation of the Transformational Integrated Special Agricultural Processing Zone for which Delta State has been shortlisted for the second phase.”
He said Delta was endowed with arable land suitable for cultivation of palm fruits, cassava, maize, yams, plantain and all sorts of vegetables, saying the Special Agricultural Processing Zone would be a strategic addition and would be hugely successful.
“Let me state without doubt that the Special Agricultural Processing Zone is critical to our strategy to transform and strengthen the entire Agricultural ecosystem of Delta State”, he stated.