Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum has announced a plan to revive the state-owned tomato factory located along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway.
The governor, who announced the plan when he paid an unscheduled assessment visit to the factory, said while the state would resuscitate the existing facilities at the factory, additional modern facilities would be procured to enhance its operational capacity.
Zulum noted that in preparation for reviving the factory, the state had established five hectares of drip-irrigated tomato farms, which would be expanded to about 100 hectares when it starts full-capacity operation.
“My main intention is to see how we shall resuscitate the moribund factories at the Borno industrial park, particularly the tomato paste factory. I understand that the challenge is the lack of raw materials that would provide a feed stock for the tomato factory.
“We decided to establish a robust drip irrigation system using net house to produce tomatoes. I am happy to note that we are working under a public-private partnership to establish at least a minimum of 100 hectares of tomato plantation.
“You can see we started with five hectares, and because of the variety of tomatoes we produce here, each hectare will produce about 60 tons. When we expand it to 100 hectares, we will get nothing less than 6,000 tonnes,” the governor said.
Similarly, Governor Zulum was also at NEITEL Shoe and Ternary Factory to assess the progress made in its operations.
Speaking during the visit, the governor said the state government has entered a public-private partnership to run the show factory which he said was now operates at about 70 percent capacity.
“You can see the company is ready to export about four containers of hide and skin. The products were taken to Italy, and it has been certified that our products are of good quality.
“The factory now produces about 100,000 hides and skin monthly. This is part of government’s effort to create jobs, generate income and expand the sources of wealth creation in the state,” he said.
