Work has resumed at the Toothpick and Pencil Factory of Akwa
Ibom State Enterprise and Employment Scheme (AKEES), after a Christmas break,
embarked upon by management and staffers of the Factory.
Our source reports that the Factory, located at Kilometre One,
Ekom Iman Road in Uyo, resumed yesterday, with payment of outstanding salaries
to workers.
Speaking shortly after disbursement of the salaries, the General
Manager of the Factory, Mr Friday Bassey, attributed the delay in payment of
salary to negligence of the company's distributors to repay their debt on time,
saying, it affected the Factory's financial standing.
Continuing, Mr Bassey refuted widespread media reports that the
Factory had shutdown for months, and cautioned people against attaching what he
described as political sentiments to government policies, especially, the
Factory, which he said is not good for the image of the Company.
"The news that we shut down is not true. On the 23rd of
December, we closed for Christmas Break, we asked workers to go and rest. But
there are insinuations that we had closed down for some months now, that there
has been no production for several months. But that is a lie from the pit of
hell.
"People should stop attaching political sentiments to
everything, His Excellency the Governor has done. I can authoritatively state
that he has done marvellously well to establish this Factory", he said.
He further revealed that Tech Point on December 18, 2017, during
its tour of Technological outfits in the South South region, scored the Factory
high, in production and machineries, but however wondered how people could
insinuate that the Factory had closed about four months ago.
"By December 18, 2017, Tech Point visited AKEES Toothpick
and Pencil Factory, when they were undertaking their technological tour of the
South South Region, our Factory is one of the places they visited and they saw
what is going on here and were very happy, that this is the first functional
Toothpick and Pencil Factory in Nigeria. But people are saying that we have
shut down, that is not true. Well, we are young and we expect those
challenges", he added.
He pointed out that the factory which is a year and three months
old has procured and installed a bigger dryer that will enable them to meet up
production deadlines, for large supply contracts, saying the procurement was
done with the factory's profits, not loan.
"The company had many supply contracts and needed a bigger
drying machine for the pencils and toothpick, but management couldn't afford to
get a loan for that purpose, so it had to save money to procure the
machine", Bassey hinted.
One of the staffers of the Factory, Mrs Aniekan Akpan frowned at
the rumour that the company had closed down, saying those behind what she
called 'deadly reports', should refrain from it.
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on
Technical Matters and Due Process, Elder Ufot Ebong, said plans are under way
to reviewing the management structure of the Factory for greater productivity,
hinting that the company with the workforce of 73 excluding others across the
value chain has helped to reduce unemployment and youth restiveness in the
State, to a greater extent.
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