John Uwan-Enoh, the Minister of State for Industry, says the politicisation of the cocoa industry has led to the sector’s underdevelopment.

In an interview in Calabar on Monday, Mr Uwan-Enoh said that despite the abundance of the cash crop, the cocoa industry had remained underdeveloped.

Talking about the case of Cross River, the minister said several efforts to establish a cocoa industry in the state were frustrated because of politics.

“There was an attempt to establish a cocoa industry in the state by a past administration; that effort did not work,” he said.

He said the people of Cross River and Nigerians would benefit immensely from any effort to convert cocoa raw materials into finished goods.

“I think that from the beginning, people have played a lot of politics with the establishment of the cocoa industry in the state.

“By now, we should be talking about industries; no country attains development without industrialisation. I want to be remembered for my strides in this sector,” he said.

Mr Uwan-Enoh said that, with the cocoa estates established by the then Eastern Region, Cross River remained Nigeria’s second-largest cocoa producer.

The minister said the federal government and the African Development Bank were partnering to develop special agricultural economic zones with eight states selected in the pilot stage.

“This idea was conceived by the administration of the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, it has an approval of about $500 million.

“With such a partnership, we should be able to stop the exportation of raw cocoa; we should add value to it for the benefit of the country.

“Fortunately, Cross River is among the states with cocoa, which is one of the crops to be developed,” he said.

(NAN)