Peace Corps engages Calabar Garment Factory to produce 100,000 uniforms

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Gov't House Correspondent|20  February 2017

The massive investment made by the Cross River State government with the establishment of the Calabar Garment Factory has started yielding fruits as the Peace Corps of Nigeria, weekend, engaged the garment outfit to produce one hundred thousand pieces of uniforms for its officers and men.

Under the terms of the contract, the Calabar Garment Factory is to produce 40,000 pieces as the first consignment, with an additional 60,000 thousand to be produced later.

The Peace Corps of Nigeria is currently being legislated into law by the National Assembly.

Speaking while on a facility tour of the factory and delivery of materials by the corps for the production of the uniforms, the deputy national Commandant in charge of Administration, Mr. Edet Ekpenyong, expressed satisfaction with the fully automated factory and assured of the corps' readiness to synergise with the state government to ensure that the factory performs within its install capacity.

Ekpeyong particularly commended Governor Ben Ayade for he described as his industrialisation drive as well other transformation initiatives currently going on in the state.

His word: "We are here to deliver our materials to the Calabar Garment Factory to commence production of one hundred thousand uniforms for us, but starting with forty thousand units. I am very excited and proud with what I have seen here at the factory. It is very clear that Governor Ayade is doing everything to move the state from a civil service state to an industrial hub. We have been monitoring the activities of Cross River and it has been a beehive of  industrialisation activities since Ayade came to power. The state has never been in the media the way it has been since the coming of the present government. Honestly, l am overwhelmed and we are very proud we would be working with the state."

In his response, Governor Ayade said the state government will do everything to help the corps succeed, noting that four thousand Cross Riverians will be recruited into the Peace Corps.

He disclosed that the concept of the garment factory was not driven by politics but by the obligation of the state to reconstruct her economic and financial architecture.

Said he: "The state, by its geography, by its location, is supposed to be an industrial hub because it is on a coastline with the Atlantic Ocean. When we saw the state had no presence of heavy industries and businesses, considering our early contact with the white man, it became clear that notwithstanding our opportunity of early enlightenment, we needed to take advantage to create a new industry, a new workforce, a new structure that can take Cross River state completely out of what our history was. So it had to start with a garment factory."

The governor, who expressed happiness that the officials of the corps were very impressed with the sample of the uniforms the factory had produced, noted: "I am happy that the same thing I was fighting for while in the senate has turned into reality. My core motion in the senate was for the creation of the peace corps and with this contract for the production of their uniforms, we are going to be happy and of course, you know we have similar understanding with the Nigerian Police. But the Nigeria Peace Corps has come so fast and so sudden. I am happy that production has started."

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