From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has expressed excitement with the coming of Resident Cement Factory Limited in the state.
Mohammed officially flagged off the drilling of a 10 million metric tons cement company at Gwana on Tuesday.
He noted with delight that it is very rare for an investor worth a trillion naira to offer 10 percent equity share to stakeholders or owners of land for the investment.
“For all the communities at the proposed site of Resident Cement Factory at Gwana District in Alkaleri LGA of Bauchi State, 10 percent equity of the total investment of $1.5 billion has been allotted to them,” he said.
“Bauchi State is going to own 10 percent of this project.
“It is the first time this is happening, and all the business community, for your information, the company has offered to them ten percent of this equity for them to take.”
The Governor said that the company, as a good gesture, reduced the price per share by half so as to reduce acquisition to a level of affordability.
He explained that the state government would, on behalf of the community, rightly take over the payment of the equity share for the community to later conveniently take it to itself.
In an earlier remark, the Group Chairman of Resident Cement Factory Ltd, Dr Abbas Waziri Junaid, explained that the company deployed geological investigations which proved the deposit in Gwana was sustainable and enough to establish a cement plant.
“Why we are here today is to prove what geophysics has discovered and found huge deposit of limestone, and for us to be able to prove that is sustainable enough for the quantity of 10 million metric tons capacity for the next one hundred years,” he said.
Junaid disclosed that the proposed project would attract thousands of people, and called on the people to invest in the provision of infrastructure that would accommodate people, revealing further that the company would at the start bring 1,000 trucks with an employment of 3,000 drivers.
“We will build an airstrip. The first project we are going to do here is that we will land our jet here, and we are going to come with a helicopter. We promise you that the next three months will be different for this place,” Junaid concluded.