TheCable

Darius Ishaku, Taraba state governor, says his state is working at mass-producing tomatoes and tea for local and foreign markets.

Speaking with state house correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday, the governor said some foreign investors had already shown interest to invest in the state.

He dismissed the insinuation that his trips to Germany and India were a jamboree, saying the interest of foreign investors in Taraba state was a result of those trips.

“The outcome was very nice. I am expecting some of the investors by next week. They will be here. Actually they should have come on the 28th but I had to travel out of the country,” he said.

“They are coming next week and three of them are already promising. We are going to work together. One of them is going to help us in the establishment of a vocational training center, skill acquisition centre in the state and you can bear me out that with the magnitude of the hydro pressure coming we need a lot of skilled manpower, even unskilled but trained, those that are trained to be able to handle the job.

“The trip wasn’t a jamboree. My view is that it was a very good trip because there were more than 200 investors who came and are eager to come to the country but they have fears.

“Some have fears of security, some feel that even the Boko Haram you are talking is happening in Abuja. Some feel that the Niger Delta you are talking about is in Abuja.

“And I had to answer one of them that Julius Berger is the biggest construction company in Abuja. Ask him he is a German. Ask him where he is living. He is living in Abuja. He has not run to Germany, which means that Nigeria is safe.

“These are things that you have to tell people out there, sensitise them, make them understand the psyche and allow them to come in to invest. We can’t do it alone. So, it was a very useful trip. We went to other towns and we saw a lot of things that could easily generate, harvest money.

“For instance, me and my Mambilla Plateau, I have a lot of cattle, see how the cattle waste is turned to power to generate the plant that is running the system.

“These are kind of things that I want to do so that I don’t have to wait. It is a very useful trip.

“Already, we have started the green house project which Israelis are building for us and we are going to be bringing in tomatoes here.

“By January, you will see fresh tomatoes made in Taraba. Taraba rice is working but we are working on a bigger one. We are working on other fields as the corn and we are working and making sure that we have a lot of plantation. Of course, the highland tea.

“I have just come from India, Dazley, where they are planting tea. We should be able to work on the tea so that the whole Island will be filled with tea. Our tea is registered as the second best in the world after Sri Lanka.”