Members of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly have expressed utmost displeasure over the abandonment of the Dakkada Cottage Industry located in Itam Local Government Area of the state.

Effiong Johnson, the Chairman of the House Committee on Industry, Commerce and Tourism made this known when he, in the company of other members of the committee, visited the facility for an on-the-spot inspection on Thursday, November 2 2023.

According to him, the cottage industry at Itam was set up by the immediate past administration to be an industrial park where daily needs such as plastic products, pencils, toothpicks and tissue papers will be produced in bulk for both domestic use within that state and also to be exported in order to boost the economy of the state.

He condemned the abandonment of the facility and expressed disappointment in the management stating that the facility has not lived up to one-third of its expectations.

He stated that the factory was inaugurated in December 2020 and was expected to begin large-scale production in the first quarter of 2021 as well as produce five tonnes of tissue daily and about 2,000 tonnes annually.

Raw materials for the industry were to be sourced locally and polypropylene was to be brought in from Onne in Rivers State but apparently none of that has taken place.

Also, 33 indigenes of the state were sent overseas in 2020 to be trained on how to operate the facility but currently, these trainees are nowhere to be found.

According to the production manager at the toothpicks and pencil production factory, production had come to a standstill because of the high cost of the equipment needed for production.

He explained that the government did not purchase the right equipment because the management wasn’t carried along and because of this, inferior goods were produced and weren’t bought by the consumers.

“When it was ordered, we were not carried along, we were only told when it had arrived, but when we checked, it was missing some components. So we had to improvise a local arrangement to start production but customers did not patronize it.”

The Chairman of the House Committee on Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Effiong Johnson reiterated his disappointment and stated that the management staff will be invited to the house to explain the situation to the Akwa Ibom people.

“What we have seen today is very sad and this place has been kept this way for a long time. We will invite you people to the house to come and explain to the Akwa Ibom people why money sunk into this kind of investment has not produced returns for the Government at the end of the day.”

“The Government comes with good intentions but people kill those intentions. This is very sad.”