The Obudu ranch resort, the Tinapa leisure resort and 32 other assets belonging to the Cross River state government would be privatised, the state privatisation council has said.
The Chairman of the state privatisation council, John Odo, said this in Calabar, Friday, while receiving the report of the technical committee set up by the council on privatisation.
Some of the assets to be privatised, Odo said, include the yet-to-be completed superhighway, deep seaport, cocoa processing factory, rice seedling factory, the garment factory, amongst others.
He said while most of the assets have been completed, only two percent of others, like the superhighway and deep seaport were still in its infantile stages.
Explaining why the proposed superhighway was also included, the Chairman said the roadmap and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the project had been done and that investor would complete and perhaps toll it.
“The roadmap for the super highway will be shown to the investors and they will come and complete. The EIA has also been done and it is the investor that will complete it and perhaps toll it so as to recoup his investments,” he said.
He further said the state privatisation excercise was backed by law enacted in 2001 during the Donald Duke’s administration, adding that the Council was adopting the report presented by the technical committee as its working document.
Speaking while presenting the report, the secretary of the technical committee, Asim Ita, said 3000 questionnaire were administered and that the committee analysed 1510 representing 50 percent to arrive at its result.
He said that during a referendum carried out across the state to ascertain the acceptablity or otherwise of the exercise, 88 percent of those sampled supported privatisation while only 12 percent opposed it.
In its recommendation, the technical committee said, “Privatisation council in collaboration with Cross River State Economic Summit Organisation, Calabar Camber of Commerce, Industries and other relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should organise a private sector consultative engagement or workshop to validate the verdict or result.
“Cross Riverians should be sensitised to start thinking as a sovereign State considering their comparative and competitive advantages in Agriculture and Solid Mineral.”
