TheCable

Umo Eno, governor of Akwa Ibom, says the state’s airline will commence regional flights from Uyo in October.

Eno spoke on Thursday on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, US.

Eno, who was represented by Ekem John, his special assistant, said the state is making conscious efforts to develop infrastructure in three gateways — land, air, and sea.

“You can go anywhere within Akwa Ibom in one hour on motorable roads. So that’s an effort because we are conscious of the fact that as we’re promoting agriculture, small farm holders in our rural areas must be able to evacuate their produce,” he said.

 “In terms of air infrastructure. We’re the first sub-national governments to build and operate an airport efficiently.

“I think we’re the first sub-national government in West Africa to own an airline and that airline traverses the entire Nigeria and in the coming few days, in October, we’ll be establishing regional flights from Uyo.”

Investors, therefore, can seize the opportunity to invest in agriculture in Akwa Ibom, he said.

Eno said following his inauguration, he separated the ministry of agriculture and water resources, and mandated the ministry of water resources to begin to work out modalities to improve “on our irrigation systems for our farms and so that’s ongoing right now”.

The governor said he was recently in Benin Republic, where he signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Songhai farms and “the idea really, is to train small farm holders into adopting modern agric practices”.

“And so we’re setting up a Songhai farm in Akwa Ibom and we’re recruiting young people are trying to make agric fashionable for the young people. So, they are paid the salaries, trained and then allowed to go and establish and run their farms,” he said.

“The government is also thinking ahead by providing storage facilities for these farmers that we are bringing on board.”

Meanwhile, Eno said the relevant authorities clamped down on illegal mining companies in the state last week.

He thanked President Bola Tinubu for highlighting the problems of illegal mining in Nigeria during his speech at the UNGA.

In a statement on Friday, Ibom Air said it would begin daily flight operations between Lagos and Ghana from October 17th, 2023.