The President of the Oil Palm Millers Association of Ula-Upata, in the Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr. Waneri Okirigwe has called on local governments in the state to reactivate the various oil mills scattered around their various councils.
Okirigwe who spoke to our correspondent recently in Port Harcourt said since the basic raw material for the production of palm oil abound in the state, it was wrong to let the mills rot.
He explained that the councils should not only embark on re-activating the mills but should also be involved in buying palm oil from local millers at a specific price.
He said in order to help the local industry thrive, the councils should always buy off  products when the prices go down and allow the local millers the opportunity of selling their products when prices rise.
According to him, such arrangement t would not only encourage local production but of would also create employment at the grassroots level.
He further opined that while the local governments reactivate the mills and make them run under a mechanized process, the locals should be allowed to run them.
He said maintenance of the mills should be the responsibility of both the LGAs and the local people under a kind of public private partnership  (PPP) arrangement.
He further explained that if the abandoned mills were re-activated, the incidences of adulterated palm oil which have flooded the markets would be a thing of the past.
Also speaking, a local oil palm miller, Mr. Julium Ibem said manual palm oil milling was cumbersome even as he welcomed the call by the Palm Millers boss.
He said over the years, efforts by local millers to meet local consumption has been hindered as the process was physically tasking.
He appealed to government to help them grow by giving them soft loans.
He said the local councils are supposed to be at the forefront in the development of the oil milling sector even as he expressed regret that the councils were not interested.