Ini Billie, Uyo
Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo will commission the state-owned, St. Gabriel Coconut Refinery located in Mkpat Enin local government area, Akwa Ibom State on Friday.
The refinery which is expected to employ over 3, 000 direct workers and has the capacity to crack 1,000,000 nuts a day, was built by a Turkish firm, VKS.
It was gathered that the refinery has so far gulped N8.48 billion out of the N36.7 billion budgeted for it in seven years.
To provide raw materials for the refinery, the state government said about five million special breeds of coconut seedlings which have high yielding value have so far been planted in the state.
According to Governor Udom Emmanuel, the coconut planting exercise which was replicated in all the local government areas in the state has the potential to replace crude oil.
He said, “Coconut has 365 uses which means that every single day that God created has a use for coconut. The coconut refinery has been completed. What is next is a test run and knowledge transfer.
“Coconut is of high value and can serve as an alternative to crude oil. This is a great investment for CBN and the Federal government. We are embarking on a campaign to cut down trees without economic value in schools, to replace them with coconut.
“Each student in public schools will be given a coconut seedling to plant.
In one day, one million students of secondary school would have planted one million coconut seedlings.
“This will create competition among the youngsters. These are high-breed seedlings we’ve been able to acquire across the world. The refinery is going to be a master economic breakthrough.”