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| L-R: SSA Joseph Edet, agropreneur Godshield Kanjal and Gov Ben Ayade |
Nyok|26 March 2019
The Senior Special Assistant, SSA to the Governor of Cross River State on Entrepreneurship and Job Placement, Mr Joseph ‘Lashakara’ Edet is under fire for reportedly directing budding entrepreneurs in the state to hawk Longrich products as a way to raise capital for their businesses NEGROIDHAVEN can say authoritatively.
This accusation is coming from an agropreneur by name, Mr Godshield Kanjal the CEO of Kalz Farms who hails from Ogoja in the Northern Senatorial District of the State. According to Kanjal, a graduate of Mass Communication from the Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH the development is coming on the heels of the just concluded Job Festival and Entrepreneurship Summit 2019 which held on Thursday 31st January 2019. Kanjal asserts that, as part of the requirement to secure grants for SMEs which was part of the feature of the said job festival and entrepreneurship summit, he presented a business plan to the state government through the office of the SSA Job Placement and Entrepreneurship for upward consideration for funding, but, was to his disappointment informed that the state government does not have money especially considering the gargantuan expenditure during the just concluded 2019 general elections, in turn he was asked to hawk Longrich products. ‘This was a rude shock’ Kanjal revealed.
His words, ‘After submitting my business plan to Cross River State Government, as directed by Joseph Lashakara Edet, Ayade’s aide, to enable me scale up my plantain chips factory. The Cross River State government says there is no money hence entrepreneurs who submitted business plans will be given Longrich products to hawk in the streets, to raise funds.
‘Imagine, they want me to quit my dream and business and hawk Chinese products. Why did you even organize the so-called “Job festival?”.
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| CEO of Kalz Farms, Mr Godshield Kanjal |
SSA Edet in the attempt to clarify on the controversy has said below Kanjal’s thread that, ‘I found a way to get Kanjal’s name in even if he wasn’t supposed to be a part of it. He didn’t pass the screening. I told him to do the marketing and entrepreneurial training we have in partnership with Longrich and take the money for free pending when the governor approves the payments we are waiting for. It’s an insult to the sacrifice I’m making for you and other Cross Riverians. Please let’s be guided’.
