PRESIDENT Umaru Yar'Adua has commissioned the 2.5 million tonne a year greenfield cement plant at Mfamosing, Cross River State, asserting that the private sector works as a major player in actualising the Vision 20:2020 goal.

This, according to him, has informed his administration's unwavering commitment to creating the requisite environment for the private sector to thrive.

The president, who was represented by the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, admitted that the nation's present physical infrastructure deficit cannot sustain any meaningful development, hence the need to prioritise the sub-sectors of electricity, transportation and telecommunications.

"We have restructured the power sector and articulated specific initiatives to streamline the sector, with focus on private sector involvement including power generation, transmission and distribution."

"The goal is to ensure that vital areas like the manufacturing sub-sector enjoy increased and steady supply of electricity, as well as, a tariff structure that will promote competitive advantage.

This would be in addition to the rehabilitation and rebuilding of the country's transport infrastructure, including inland waterways and rail transport," he said.

Chairman of UNICEM, Mr. John Coumantaros said the plant would improve the country's economy, describing it as "a great step forward in achieving self sufficiency in cement production in Nigeria. Cement will come cheaper and there would be a boost in government revenue generation."

Besides creating jobs for the youths, he said the plant would bring about the extension of the national gas grid to the state. While promising not to relent on community growth, he thanked the host community for the co-operation so far.

Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, commended all, who made the actualisation of the plant a success. He particularly urged the host community of Mfamosing to continue being peaceful and to protect and treasure the facility.

Building the plant required the importation of in excess of 1. 65 million tonnes of building material, and during the construction phase, 2, 200 workers were employed, of which more than 75 per cent were Nigerians.

Specifications for the Mfamosing plant include a raw mill output of 480 tonnes per hour, two cement mills each with a 160 tonnes per hour capacity and four packing lines of 112 tonnes per hour.

On site storage are circular storage (54, 000 tonnes), additive storage (2, 000 tonnes), iron ore (2, 500 tonnes), HG limestone (8, 400) and gypsum (2, 500 tonnes).

Managing Director of the company, Dr. Joey Ghose, said "production of cement from the UNICEM Mfamosing plant will result in savings to the Nigerian economy of $300 million in foreign exchange net outflow per year."


Guardian

I wonder how this will help them achieve vision 2020.
Yar'Adua, u try oh

This MAN needs to be REPRESENTED everywhere! LOL. Forget the events for a second, how many places or speeches (again, ignore the contents for a second) has HE delivered by HIMSELF without asking someone to REPRESENT him? Lame duck president is a generous description of this man!

Why does the federal govt have to "enjoy/take credit" for the successes of private ventures. UNICEM is not a federal entity. They have built the plant to produce cement in order to make PROFIT. Why is Yaradua commissioning and making it seem like this was his initiative.
I remember OBJ did the same for OBajana. Morons