12/16/2004 THIS DAY (NIGERIA) - AAGM - Ebonyi State Government has signedMemorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with a Germany-based internationalInvestment and Trade Company, Globe Commodities, to establish palm oilprocessing plant and expand the state's palm oil plantation to 30,000hectares.

This was made known to reporters by Secretary to the State Government(SSG), Professor Ozo, Nweke Ozo who said the agreement was signed in KualaLumpur, Malaysia.

According to Ozo, who led a three-man delegation to Malaysia to attend aninternational conference on investment, details of the MOU include thecondition that State shall define and make available all information onland available for the project, and guarantee the proposed method ofdeveloping the project through private initiative.

In a joint news briefing with members of the delegation, and theCommissioner of Information, Dr John Otu, the SSG said according to theagreement, Globe Commodities shall prepare a general concept to integratethe existing state government owned nursery palms to establish a "robustpalm oil sector."

Ozo said he was optimistic that the government would galvanise the oilpalm industry with the assistance of the agency, assuring that it wouldsecure at least 10,000 hectares of land from each of the three senatorialzones of the state, noting that the state government had prepared for theactualization of the project, as it already has oil palm nurseries invarious parts of the state.

Commissioner of Information, Dr John Otu, also expressed government'sreadiness to embark on the project adding that Ebonyi is largely anagrarian state with so much potential for agricultural development. Hesaid government is determined to improve its revenue through investment inthe sector, which explains why it established fertilizer blending plantand one of the largest poultry farms in Nigeria, the Nkaliki PoultryComplex.

Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)