Nasarawa seeks partnership with Jampur Group to equip, upgrade specialist hospital Akwanga

…also takeover Jangwa Rice Farm, generate power in Farin Ruwa

The Nasarawa State Government has sought for collaboration and partnership with a Dubai based international conglomerate, Jampur Group, in the area of agriculture, power generation, mining and health.

Governor Abdullahi Sule who led the negotiations on behalf of the state government, disclosed this while hosting a delegation from the Jampur Group led by its Country Manager, Muhammad Asad Javeed, at the Government House on Tuesday.

Governor Sule specifically wants Jampur Group to enter into a build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement with his administration on the building, equipping and upgrade of the new specialist hospital in Akwanga, where Jampur will jointly run the facility for an agreed number of years before handing over, while also training indigenes of the state.

“We recently got the teaching hospital, so we converted our specialist hospital to a teaching hospital and now we have to relocate the specialist hospital to another city. Because of that, we have the opportunities to upgrade that hospital.

“I wouldn’t mind, with your kind of knowledge and experience, to go into partnership with you. You supply the equipment. You do the upgrade. You jointly manage with us to train some of our people and bring it to certain level and we take over,” he stated.

In the area of agriculture, the Governor sought for the Jampur Group to replicate what the company is currently doing in Mozambique here in Nasarawa State, urging them to consider partnering with his administration to run the state-owned Jangwa Rice Farm.

“When you mentioned what you did in Mozambique in the area of agriculture, that’s the reason why I said I must visit our farm before you come. I want us to have another Mozambique in Nasarawa State.

“We have a very beautiful farm and it’s ready for harvest. In the next two weeks, we are going to start harvesting our farm. I don’t know who will be the next governor. The next governor may be very interested in agriculture as I am. He may not be. But the opportunities there are wonderful. I think it is something that you can do. You can replicate Mozambique there. We can go into a relationship with you,” he said.

According to the Governor, with the level of commitment and work on the Jangwa Rice Farm, the state government is ready to go into partnership with a private investor for the sustainability of the project.

“Right now, we are doing all the investment. We started with 2000 hectares of land which we planted and harvested last year. This year, we did heavy land clearing of additional 1, 300. Now, the 1, 300 is sitting on a little bit higher ground where flooding is no longer a challenge. We have finished the hard work, the clearing, preparation of the land. It is now mature for a sincere investor, someone who really wants to invest in rice, to come and partner with the state and then we can go from there,” he said.

He said his vision for the state in agriculture is for Nasarawa State to lead the country in the sector, especially that presently the state is leading in some major food crops.

“You cant be doing agriculture in Nigeria and take Nasarawa out. We are number one in sesame in the country, we are number two in cassava, number two in yams and number five in rice. By the time you join us, we may be number in rice production in the country. That is the dream.

“There is no better time to go into partnership than now, since we are now getting ready to harvest. We can now talk about increase, we have the equipment, big tractors to clear additional land so that we can expand. If you have a partner like Jampur then you should feel comfortable about expansion also,” he added.

Speaking on the collaboration and partnership in the area of power, Governor Sule said the Farin Ruwa waterfalls presents a golden opportunity for his administration to enter into partnership with the Jampur Group to produce hydropower.

“We have a waterfall in Nasarawa State called the Farin Ruwa waterfalls. At that site, the first civilian administration in the state wanted to generate about 15 to 20 megawatts of power in the area. It did not work out because there is no road in the area. But now we have constructed the road and the dam is being reconstructed by the federal government. There is opportunity to generate hydropower there,” he said.

He explained that the opportunity is further enhanced by the proximity of a high tension line owned by the NESCO power company, which makes it easy for any company generating power in Farin Ruwa to sell directly to the national grid.

In the area of mining, the Governor sought partnership with Jampur Group, considering their experience supplying power to airports across the country, to generate and supply power to mining companies operating in the state.

“Mining like I said is one area, where even the existing companies, you can go in and generate power for them, depending on what source you want to use,” he said.

To further consolidate on the talks, Governor Sule directed that the State Deputy Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, as well as the Commissioner of health to negotiate on behalf of the state government on the partnership in the area of health.

He equally directed the Commissioner of Environment, Dr. Margaret Elayo, Managing Director of the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), Ibrahim Abdullahi and Managing Director of the Nasarawa State Electricity Board (NASEB), Engr. Yakubu Suleiman Umar, to lead the state government negotiations in the area of mining, investments and power generation.

Earlier, while stating their mission, Country Manager, Jampur Group, Muhammad Asad Javeed, said they were at the Government House to further earlier discussion on how his company and Nasarawa State Government can collaborate for the mutual benefits of the people of the state.

“Jumpur Group has its headquarters in Dubai. We have active presence in about 17 African countries and Nigeria. We are into a number of investments. We are into power generation, shipping, mining, equipment, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation sector as well,” he said.

Javeed mentioned some of the projects being handled by the Jampur Group in Nigeria to include power supply at airports in Abuja, Lagos and Maiduguri, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Aviation.

“Besides that, we have 150 megawatts power plants currently in Lagos. We also have an association with Bayelsa State where we are providing 50 megawatts power plant, IPP located in Yenagoa and other cities nearby. We are in discussion with the Akwa Ibom state government for a free zone power IPP. We also have a partnership with Kaduna Disco for a 100 megawatts power source,” he said.

He equally mentioned the firm’s foray into mining, health and agriculture.

“In the mining sector, we have been doing mining for many years in other African countries. We have some licenses in Nigeria also which we are willing to explore. We are also into the agricultural sector. We have a number of agriculture production units, where we are doing the herbicides. Into the health sector, we are doing a number of things. We have some health units for the manufacture of surgical equipment in Angola and some other countries. We are willing to also participate in the same sector in terms of equipment delivery, building of state-of-the-art hospitals, and many other things. Whatever partnership and collaboration are needed,” he added.