The Cross River State Government has entered into a strategic partnership with Pana Holdings to unlock the state’s vast gas and solid mineral deposits, in a move aimed at boosting industrialisation, creating jobs, and ensuring sustainable economic growth.
The agreement, signed at the Executive Council Chamber, Governor’s Office in Calabar, by Governor Bassey Otu and Pana Holdings’ Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Daere Akobo, is designed to position Cross River as a regional hub for energy, mining, and industrial development through robust public-private collaboration.
Governor Otu described the pact as a bold step toward harnessing the state’s abundant natural resources responsibly, stressing that government alone cannot deliver development without strong private sector involvement. He pledged transparency, accountability, and full cooperation to ensure the success of the project while assuring investors of a peaceful and business-friendly environment.
The governor also lauded President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for creating an enabling policy framework, calling it a decisive shift from years of economic “freeloading.”
In his presentation, Dr. Akobo revealed that Cross River holds an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, alongside rich deposits of limestone, barite, gold, granite, quartz, manganese, and rare earth metals such as cerium and lanthanum. He emphasized that these resources, if harnessed responsibly, could power
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