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| Governor Ben Ayade and Investors |
The conducive and investors’ friendly environment made possible by the dogged business acumen, pragmatic /proactive leadership style of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River ably supported by the hospitable disposition of the people of the state have continue to attract reputable investors to the state.
The recent addition to these list of investors/companies scrambling for a space to invest in the state fertile investment soil is Buoshishi International limited, which is totally committed to investing millions of dollars in the building of power transmission lines stretching over 300 kilometers from the southern part of the state to the northern part of Cross River, with an eye to equally invest on the deep seaport if given the approval by the state government.
Speaking while receiving the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Buoshishi International Limited, Amb. Yahaya Abdullahi Mohammed in his private resident in Calabar, Saturday, the governor of Cross River, Senator Ben Ayade, commended the Chairman and CEO of the company and his team for the kind words spoken about his administration and the state.
He said that there is a robust investment climate in Cross River and that the company should equally invest in the mouthwatering aspect of power generation making use of the current technology in hydro power to generate electricity as Cross River has 126km of Atlantic coast stretching over 21,000 square kilometer of land, besides transmission and the interest it has shown in the deep seaport.
Ayade said that as government carries out its development initiatives, generating and obtaining power from hydroelectricity is important to the state and will do everything to encourage it’s development, hence the company has no business operating elsewhere as according to the governor, this will be the first transmission lines going from the Atlantic ocean to northern Nigeria.
“You have no business going outside Cross River State because the state has the right environment, it has the right character, it has the right people, and it has the governor who come from a business environment. As a state we actually have 182kva transmission station from Odukpani to the northern part of the state,… however the transmission route are going through the new super high way, 261km super highway and our concept that the whole of Cross River is shifting gradually into the super highway because that is where all the factory, new cities are being built, so what you will do is to build this transmission lines knowing that most companies are planning to relocate to Cross River.
In those days when you told me to be a politician, I will tell you never but today am a politician, and my politics is with ethics, so I don’t fall in that category of a traditional politician, because for me, politics is to add value to my people and to mankind. Before my tenure expires, and say this with inspiration from God to make a difference in Cross River State, it is a commitment I swore with the almighty God that I will rather go back to the senate than to be a governor without making the different in the lives of my people,. I took an oath with God that i will move Cross River from a third world to a first world within my eight years in office. And so from day one I had a clear vision of what I want to achieve
The ambition is bigger than the carrying capacity of me financially but I know that funding is just a very small aspect of the scope of any intelligent man who had the weaponry of childhood poverty and the armoury of God. I came from that background of childhood poverty that has given me the energy, dexterity and the capacity to do so much business without money. Some years back, when I conceived the deep seaport, it look like it was impossible when I conceived a six lane super highway it look impossible, but today I have more and more investor coming for those projects just waiting for the final approvals”, from the relevant Federal government authorities to commence .
“Indeed we have a big dredging company from China that is fully ready to start dredging work”, armed with 88 million dollar to put into the work and get their dredgers ready to commence work as soon as the approval is secured, adding, Ayade informed the Chairman of Buoshishi International Limited that the company can participate in the operational phase of the work, the construction phase or the dredging, while assuring them that their transmission lines will have more than enough people to hook on to.
The Governor stated further that “great dream, great vision, and for every great vision and dream, God has made a provision for its actualization. God has given us a team that is fitting into the super highway, the deep seaport, the Calasvegas city, the rice city, garment factory”, among others.
Ayade who said that the company was not unaware of the law guiding the transmission of power in Nigeria, that at the end of the day the lines belong to the Federal Government as the Federal government will pay off the company because power transmission in Nigeria is still monopolistic, further disclosed, “our business with you is to create a synergy that can enable you to evacuate power from Odukpani to the northern part of the state”, however that the national power plan transmitting power to northern part of Cross River State from Abakiliki have been dysfunctional with most of the conductors weak and poor, substations not working, resulting in huge loss of power across the transmission circuits, and so the people of northern part of the state have for the past 7 years not have light.
“That is why when you go to Obudu now, we have a diesel turbines generating electricity for the LGA moving up to Ogoja, Yala Ikom Ugep and Akpet. Now as we do this our true focus is to actually source our power from hydro because the Odukpani power plant which is about 540mw would have been enough to carry Cross River because the state will carry just about 180mw, if we have a generation of about 120-180mw, it will be enough. However, under the inverted supply system, once you are going above that 120mw you have to subscribe to the national grid, so the Odukpani power plant takes power from Oshogbo and it is from Oshogbo that you now have the distribution. Though we have the ownership of the power plant, it will definitely be evacuated to the Federal corridor that pose a challenge”.
Senator Ayade explained that, “as a state we have been fighting that at least a 100mw should be retained for the state. Option two is that we have 126km of Atlantic coast stretching over 21,000sqauer kilometer of land, so we will focus on hydro electricity generation. We just have to have some 4 or 5 mw embedded on the subsoil, sub waters and you have the underwater current generating your electricity effortlessly, thereby using your gas for Nano technology, petro-chemical and focus on hydro.
My take is that while you focus on transmission lines, and because you have shown robustness with the document that I have seen from the bank of Scotland that I have very high respect for, having 500million dollars and 5 billion dollars gives me the confidence that you can move from transmission line to generating plant. Technology today has become so easy that you can generate your electricity even from salty water that we have in Atlantic Ocean. The hydroelectricity has high investment cost but zero operational cost and so on the long run it is always better to go hydro. My take is that while my commissioner is focusing with you on transmission, I will be dealing with you directly on generation.
The governor further disclosed that the state tariff system is investment/investors friendly, recognizing the fact that we are building a deep seaport in Calabar with an evacuation corridor to northern Nigeria, adding that, “we have received letters from Niger Republic and Chad republic, aggressively begging that they want to invest in our deep seaport, while another company in China want to set up 200 major manufacturing companies in Bakassi deep seaport.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Buoshishi International Limited, Amb. Yahaya Abdullahi Mohammed, disclosed that his company is attracted to Cross River as a result of the investors’ friendly environment, near zero crime rate provided by the administration of Senator Ben Ayade, coupled with his astute, visionary and pragmatic leadership he has so far exhibited, thereby motivating the company to reach an understanding to build transmission lines spanning about 300kms from the south to the north part of the state.
“We are to provide the required technical knowhow and funding. We will prioritize our recruitment of both skilled and unskilled to favour Cross River indigenes. Again, we came up with MoU which we wanted you to go rough to give us the encouragement and impetus on the partnership. Not only did we want partnership with you on power, but we are intending to fill the gap in developing the deep seaport under a “build, operate and transfer” and as such negotiation will come in the aftermath of this ceremony.
If you permit us that discussion can kick start after we have got off this one. We are optimistic and serious and to demonstrate our seriousness and to show you that we have absolute confident in your state, we are here with 500 million dollar and another 5 billion dollar from the Bank of Scotland to assure you of our budget capacity, our outreach our pedigree and our integrity”, stressing further that they are committed to the partnership and that they are willing to work with the state and bring development to the door steps of the people of Cross River.