The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has partnered with a lawmaker, Mr. Paul Ekpo, to empower 50 farmers in Etinan Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State. Each farmer received 100 stands of oil palm seedlings and N100,000 to boost palm oil production.
According to Mrs. Nonye Ayeni, NEPC’s Executive Director, “Although Nigeria has huge potentials in palm oil to reclaim the leading position in terms of production and export, the potentials are not being harnessed effectively.” She emphasized the importance of palm oil production, saying it is an age-long occupation in the South-South and South-East regions.
The lawmaker, Mr. Ekpo, encouraged the beneficiaries to plant the oil palm seedlings and believe in their potential. “Palm oil production is the mainstay in agriculture, and you have a choice whether to produce and earn in naira or in foreign currency. There is something in oil palm that most people do not realise, no part of oil palm is a waste. The oil palm you are seeing today will bring millionaires from among you tomorrow.”
The partnership aims to step up the palm oil business from local to international market, and the beneficiaries were taken through different species of oil palm, its derivatives, planting methods, and business management techniques. One of the beneficiaries, Mr. Emem Jimmy, thanked NEPC and the lawmaker for the empowerment programme, saying it would make many people self-reliant.
