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UK firm plans to invest 150bn/- in agrofestry
2006-10-10 09:23:34
By Mawazo Malembeka, PST, Iringa.
More employment opportunities are likely to be created in Kilolo district after a foreign firm pledged to invest 150bn/- in a timber factory and agroforestry.
The firm, New Forests Company from the United Kingdom, plans to plant between 3,000 and 4,000 hectares of various tree species.
”In the first year of the project, we will build a modern timber factory. Later, we expect to employ about 10,000 people, most of who will work on the plantations,” the company’s executive director, Julian Ozzane told PST at the weekend.
He said the factory would also produce between 50 and 60 megawatts of electricity from timber residues for its use and sell the surplus to the national power grid.
He would not, however, specify when the project would take off. He said the company would embark on the project once the government gives it the greenlight.
”We would like to start work on the farms as soon as possible; we even ready to start even tomorrow as we have the money but the government has not cleared us,” he said.
The director said the company had already entered into a contract with Kilolo district authorities to execute the project.
He said the firm had disbursed USD 5,000 to the district that would be used to survey the land for the tree farms.
Giving details about the project, Ozzane said the MP for Kilolo, Prof Peter Msolla, recently met the company’s board of directors in London.
”We later sent experts to assess the situation in the district and we were satisfied with what they found there,” he said.
He said the company would bring into the district seeds for fast growing trees from Central America and Brazil. Some of the seeds would be distributed to villagers to grow on their farms and later sell the trees to the company.
The company has also pledged to spend about 300m/- annually for the provision of social services in the district including construction of roads and schools.
Prof Msolla urged residents in the district to take advantage of the opportunities and improve their income.
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