By Johnson Nwankwo
The proposed Adada State has the potentials of becoming the economic hub of Nigeria. The director general of Nsukka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Mr Uchenna Nnadi, disclosed this, weekend, while speaking with newsmen in Nsukka.
Nnadi, a financial and business management consultant with specialty in governance and risk management and succession planning, said Adada is blessed with arable lands, rivers and streams, and the market capable of solving the food insecurity, unemployment and poverty ravaging our society.
Quoting him, “These rivers gave the division an Ogurugu river port for the evacuation of oil palm produce during the colonial period. The famous Adani Farm Settlement was based on Obina river, while the defunct Adada Cattle Ranch arose on the shores of Adada river.
“The division is the second largest source of garden egg, tomatoes and chili peppers after the Northern Nigeria’s source of supply in Nigeria. It has the largest private sector oil palm plantations in the Southeast, now threatened by insecurity and lack of policy support. Boosting the private sector economic ecosystem is one of the primary means of stabilizing food insecurity in the country, and also a reason for the state to be created.”
Aside these, Nnadi posited the presence of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as well as proposed specialised institutions already articulated by some think tanks for the proposed state. In his words, “UNN is the first Land Grant University in Africa. This means that UNN is equipped with agriculture and engineering know-how and structures that Adada can utilize through Town and Gown programmes to transform the area into agro and industrial global hub. This has been articulated in greater details in Igbo Nsukka Vision of UNN. UNN will therefore collaborate with the proposed state university of agriculture and the institute of fishery and aquatic studies to provide sufficient export of blue economy products and harvest the abundant commercial, technological and agricultural blessings of Adada State.”
He described the quality of honey produced from the division as the ‘global best’. Nnadi said, “Nsukka honey is one of the global best honey given its unique blends and unpolluted flora. For instance, cashew and shea butter honey is highly sought after blends. Adada lies in a cashew belt, and strips of shea butter, among other diverse flora. Traceability and global Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) will enable Nsukka honey and cashew production and processing for export in large scale throughout the year.”
He also spoke about Nsukka Yellow Pepper popularly called ‘Ose Nsukka’, which he said meets all requirements to be pronounced a Geographical Indication product, “save for national legislative Bill being awaited”.
He said, “The planned provision of water, storage facilities and other modern agro-infrastructure will take the production and processing of Nsukka Yellow Pepper (tomato, garden egg and other similar fruits and vegetables) to a very high level of huge export earning.
“The example set by Wilson Group confirms that Nsukka division has enormous potentials for vertical and horizontal integrated industrial ecosystem. Wilson Group utilizes virtually all products from palm trees in its factory, save for palm wine. This shows that primary production, industrial processing and distribution are so suitable in Adada State that Nigeria cannot afford to delay the creation of the state any longer. This confirms the economic capacity of Adada State.”
He regretted that despite the potentials of the division, it is still the poorest in Enugu State. He revealed that, “Enugu State has 6-7 out of 10 persons being multi-dimensionally poor in the latest data of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and BudgIT publications. This final report card together with all the other above points constitutes the justifications of why Adada needs to be urgently created to arrest the skyrocketing food inflation, unemployment and poverty in society.”
Our correspondent reports that the Nsukka cultural zone of Enugu State, comprising seven LGAs of Nsukka, Igboeze North, Igbo-Etiti, Igboeze South, Udenu, Isi-Uzo and Uzo-Uwani make up the geography of the proposed state.
