By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Ebonyi State Government said on Monday that plans are underway for the establishment of a new cement factory at Nkalagu in Ishielu local government Area of the state.

The state Governor, Francis Nwifuru, who stated this, while conducting Chinese contractors round NIGERCEM, Nkalagu, explained that the bottlenecks surrounding the reactivation of the old factory informed government's decisions to establish a new one.

He said preliminary findings indicated that large deposits of limestones that will sustain the company when established for more than thirty years.

"We have 50 million tons of limestone in Nkalagu and 23 million tons at Effium and if put together will sustain the factory for a minimum of 30 years," he said.

The Governor said the company will be fully functional, creating jobs and crashing costs of building materials for not only the State, Southeast, but the nation in general.

The Governor stated that, as a responsive government alive to its social contracts, the establishment of the new factory was not politically motivated neither was it driven on opaque interests “but because it formed the industrialization components of the People's Charter of Needs Agenda."

"This is the part of the project we believe we must execute.

"We came with manufacturers, designers, builders and contractors. They will see the limestones," he said.

Insisting the move is not politically motivated, he said upon completion of the project "no one will buy shares here including my humble self".

The Ebonyi State Chief Executive said that the expatriates have assured him of timely completion to drive the industrialization vision of his administration.

"We have been assured by them of the timely completion of this project," he said.

The Governor, while lauding the support of some leaders, commended his Anambra counterpart, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo for his continued indication of interest in the reactivation of the Old NIGERCEM.

It would be recalled that Ebonyi State Government appropriated the sum of 150 billion naira in the 2026 Budget for the establishment of a new cement factory.