Cross River State Garment Factory is the largest garment factory in the world by floor size and is awaiting the Guinness Book of World Records verification. The factory is a project of the Cross River State government under the leadership of Ben Ayade, the executive governor of the state.The garment factory is a very innovative investment in Nigeria at a time of recession and is expectedto create more than 3,000 jobs in shifts for Cross Riverians, especially women, and reduce importation of garments by promoting local production. The factory is expected to also promote economic development in Nigeria and add to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product. In recent times, the Cross River Garment Factory has been trending in the media for many good reasons. The first is that of all the states in the federation, the factory is one of the most outstandingprojects from any governor in the first year.On the other hand there has been some negative publicity related to the garment factory propagated by a few Cross Riverians which has to do with the ownership of the garment factory and alleged embezzlement of funds appropriated for its construction.I sought to find out more about the Cross River Garment factory for myself and many other Cross Riverians who would love to know the truth about the factory and separate them from the half-truths and lies being peddled in the media. In this journey of discovery, I took a trip to the garment factory to see things for myself, met the commissioner for Commerce and Industries and had a chat with him and spoke with some of the contractors involved in the construction of the factory.
The Cross River Garment factory is located on 2000 square meters land space on the Goodluck Jonathan bypass in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. The edifice stands in a picturesque landscape with well-pave driveway and parking lot to accommodate expected clients and staff vehicles. Inside the factory are more than 2,000 electric powered garment production machines ranging from cutting to sewing, embroidery, ironing machines and many more. I observed that many of the machines are computerized.Work at the garment factory was more than 98 percent complete but there was still some skeletal work going on as a heavy duty equipment could be seen moving at the back of the building. A careful observation shows clearly that billions of Naira have been spent in bringing the factory up to that level of completion from the initial hills, trees, stumps and shrubs that occupied the area. These could still be seen in the adjourning landscape.
The first question was, who owns the Cross River Garment Factory? Is it owned by the Cross River State Government or an individual? The commissioner answered the question very clearly. “The factory is a property of the Cross River State Government.”He said, “The Cross River State Government registered a Special Purpose Vehicle SPV to drive the project and achieve expected objectives and outcomes for the factory considering the peculiar challenges of government owning and running businesses in Nigeria.”
The next issue I sought to know was, is it true that N2.7 billion appropriated was embezzled? The commissioner laughed long and hard and after that spoke very calmly. “If the N2.7 billion appropriated for the garment factory was embezzled, would you see this edifice standing here?” he asked.
I was not yet done with the commissioner as there was one critical issue that all Cross Riverians wanted to know about, including me. Your guess is as good as mine. I asked him what was the role of Dr. Frank Ayade, the governor’s brother, in Cross River Garment Factory project?The commissioner looked me in the eyes and said without hesitation. “There are 8 contractors who handled various aspects of the construction of the factory. None of these companies belong to Dr. Frank Ayade. The governor’s brother thus has no official role when it comes to the construction of the garment factory.”These information provided by the commissioner of commerce and industry helped to clarify a lot ofissues surrounding the garment factory. I however asked him to do two more things for me. These were, grant me access to some of the contractors that handled work at the garment factory, so we could chat a little and provide documents backing these truths he had just presented to me.The commissioner obliged me and immediately asked one of his aides to take me to one of the contractors available at the factory and after that make photocopies of documents related to the garment factory available to me. Well to be truthful, I did not expect the commissioner would oblige so promptly.This gave me some amount of reassurance that maybe as opposed to the picture some people where trying to paint, the government was actually more open about the garment factory, its ownership and its funding than we give them credit for.
As I studied the documents while my car was manoeuvring through the traffic in the city, I wondered why there was so much falsehood in the public space about the garment factory and why there was so much antagonism by Cross Riverians about the project that was intended to benefit them even as it is being celebrated by people outside the state.
With these documents before me, the truth has been laid bare and I expect that the law must take its course as it relates to the false petition sent to the EFCC. We must find out who sent the false petition and EFCC must invite him or her for further clarification.
In the end I will like to say that having gone round and discovering that most of the information being peddled around about the garment factory and Dr. Frank Ayade are tissues of half truths and lies, my last word is that our politics should not dovetail into hatred for our state.
http://crossriverwatch.com/2016/09/cross-river-garment-factory-and-dr-frank-ayade-separating-truth-from-outright-lies-by-emmanuel-etim/

IBBG:
Cross River State Garment Factory is the largest garment factory in the world by floor size and is awaiting the Guinness Book of World Records verification. The factory is a project of the Cross River State government under the leadership of Ben Ayade, the executive governor of the state.The garment factory is a very innovative investment in Nigeria at a time of recession and is expectedto create more than 3,000 jobs in shifts for Cross Riverians, especially women, and reduce importation of garments by promoting local production. The factory is expected to also promote economic development in Nigeria and add to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product.In recent times, the Cross River Garment Factory has been trending in the media for many good reasons. The first is that of all the states in the federation, the factory is one of the most outstandingprojects from any governor in the first year.On the other hand there has been some negative publicity related to the garment factory propagated by a few Cross Riverians which has to do with the ownership of the garment factory and alleged embezzlement of funds appropriated for its construction.I sought to find out more about the Cross River Garment factory for myself and many other Cross Riverians who would love to know the truth about the factory and separate them from the half-truths and lies being peddled in the media.In this journey of discovery, I took a trip to the garment factory to see things for myself, met the commissioner for Commerce and Industries and had a chat with him and spoke with some of the contractors involved in the construction of the factory.

@ Bolded, Nigerians love awards so much so even if they're dormant and are ineffective and inefficient.
@ Reddened quote, a governor who thinks in reverse. The only governor with bad road networks whose ultimate ambition is to neglect these roads, and construct a superhighway from Calabar to Cameron.

Cross riverians I hall una o!

kingreign:


@ Bolded, Nigerians love awards so much so even if they're dormant and are ineffective and inefficient.
@ Reddened quote, a governor who thinks in reverse. The only governor with bad road networks whose ultimate ambition is to neglect these roads, and construct a superhighway from Calabar to Cameron.

Cross riverians I hall una o!

good roads alone will not put food on the table. you need industries to provide steady jobs for the citizen. the super highway is a road of great economic value, as it will serve as an evacuation corridor for goods produced in the industries. all are still laudable projects.

IBBG:
good roads alone will not put food on the table. you need industries to provide steady jobs for the citizen. the super highway is a road of great economic value, as it will serve as an evacuation corridor for goods produced in the industries. all are still laudable projects.

One question.
Are there any good roads linking CRS to neighbouring states and hinterlands to main markets with which agro based products can easily be brought in?
Yes or No

Wait just 2.7bn.. .? ?

And Mr Bruce was given 11bn and he was only able to create 500 jobs in 10 years

Nigerians, are their own problems... 10 of this ans u have 30000 jobs saving Nigeria billions in revenue.. . Producing cheap cloths for Nigerians and other Africans


Men what is our problem... Why can't Abia state government invest in this??

That's great. I think every Nigerians would one way or another benefit from the this. The CR govt should also not neglect other areas like good roads, stable electricity,etc, that would help the firm thrive.

Some1 should borrow Amosu brain

Aba will render this factory unprofitable. whatever they produced will be cloned in Aba and sold at cheaper rate. Government have no business running business

kingreign:


One question.
Are there any good roads linking CRS to neighbouring states and hinterlands to main markets with which agro based products can easily be brought in?
Yes or No

the roads u r referring to that are in really bad shape are the federal roads and not state road.

basilo101:
Aba will render this factory unprofitable. whatever they produced will be cloned in Aba and sold at cheaper rate. Government have no business running business

it is still good. as long as it bring down the price of goods. i still believe there is still a huge untapp market that the factory will harness, cos the last time i checked we are still importing cloths that we have no business importing even with the Aba factory in place. military, paramilitary uniforms, campiagn shirts, carnival costumes will all be produced here. so the potential are huge.

basilo101:
Aba will render this factory unprofitable. whatever they produced will be cloned in Aba and sold at cheaper rate. Government have no business running business

Nigerians don't seem to learn that lesson well after all the failures. From oil to telecommunications. What has Nigerian government run well. They are garbage at business that's why free market should handle it. They should just regulate and collect taxes. Use taxes for infastrure.

It's a laudable project no doubt. But. I think it's high time the Governor looks into the road network issues in the State. I serve here n can tell you that Cross River has the worst Road network is the whole World. The Man is not half as good as the OP wanted to paint him.

mrvitalis:
Wait just 2.7bn.. .? ?

And Mr Bruce was given 11bn and he was only able to create 500 jobs in 10 years

Nigerians, are their own problems... 10 of this ans u have 30000 jobs saving Nigeria billions in revenue.. . Producing cheap cloths for Nigerians and other Africans


Men what is our problem... Why can't Abia state government invest in this??

For once i agree with your opinion,
Though, i don't see why you have to bring BMB in these.

Decodedp:



For once i agree with your opinion,
Though, i don't see why you have to bring BMB in these.

How that man wasted 11bn is still paining me... and he says he has common sense??

mrvitalis:
Wait just 2.7bn.. .? ?

And Mr Bruce was given 11bn and he was only able to create 500 jobs in 10 years

Nigerians, are their own problems... 10 of this ans u have 30000 jobs saving Nigeria billions in revenue.. . Producing cheap cloths for Nigerians and other Africans


Men what is our problem... Why can't Abia state government invest in this??

With ur post there hope for Naija.

sheyguy:
With ur post there hope for Naija.

Hopefully we get the chance to contribute.... with people like Bruce and Jimor getting tens of billion to invest in failed projects... and I have been moving around begging for grants or even partners for my ideas.. yet no one will hear

Nigeria is set to fail but we can't give up

Zombies hate any good news about us, but they still want us to stay with them as one Nigeria. U a dey craze

mrvitalis:

How that man wasted 11bn is still paining me... and he says he has common sense??

Lol

But most business men lose money at one point or another naa.

Anyways thank God AMCON has stepped in.