In a bid to attain food security and create employment for her teeming populace, the Akwa Ibom State Government has reached an understanding with three foreign firms in the United Kingdom, Israel and Malaysia for commercial production and processing of rice and palm oil for export.

The state commissioner of Information and Social Re-orientation, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, who revealed the development, stated that while the companies are funding the projects 100 per cent, the state government is providing the required minimum of 10,000 hectares of land for the project. He added that government will also retain 22 per cent of the net profit.

The commissioner also revealed that the administration has empowered 1,530 youths with N500,000 each under the Integrated Farmers Scheme (IFS) in 2009. He said government has also approved another 910 participants for 2010 in addition to the 620 drawn from the 31 LGAs in the state.

The commissioner also stated that in addition to the above, no fewer than 4,000 jobs have been created by the state government under the Commercial Agriculture Programme.

Mr. Umanah, who dropped the hint in a publication entitled “Thirty Six Months of Doing Godswill”, said that the administration has also procured a 1,800,000 metric tons food storage and processing infrastructure in Abak local Govt. Area valued at N1.5 billion under the Akwa Ibom State Food Reserve Programme.

The commissioner said that government has also voted the sum of N11 billion for Accelerated Livestock and Fish Production in the livestock and fisheries sub-sector.