Walter Ukaegbu, Abuja
The Federal Government is set to create about four million jobs through oil palm production in the country. This was made known by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Sunday Edet Akpan, at the Stakeholders Forum for the presentation of the draft Oil Palm Policy document value chain held recently in Abuja.
The Permanent Secretary, represented by theDirector, Department of CommodityProduce and Inspectorate, (CPI) Mrs. Omololu Ope-Ewe, said Federal Government is working assiduously towards ensuring the repositioning of the oil palm sector for optimal contribution in terms of job creation and revenue sources for both government and the private sector.
Akpan also emphasised that oil palm, which once played a predominant role in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, depends on imported ones to augment local production, which is just about one per cent of the GDP, unlike the contribution of 70 per cent to the GDP in the past, despite the potential in the sector with the propensity to sufficiently and conveniently place the country as a major oil palm producer and exporter, as against what is obtainable in the crude