The Federal Government has begun the construction of a federal inland port in Yola, the Secretary to the Adamawa State Government, Umar Bindir, has disclosed.
Bindir said the construction of the inland cargo port, which was earlier affected by the insurgency that ravaged the North-East, confirmed the return of peace to the state.
He added that the state suffered economically from the insurgency, causing the flow of investment to nosedive.
Estimating the loss due to the insurgency, the SSG, said the state might have lost over $9bn, which he noted was thrice the size of the state’s Gross Domestic Product.
“If I were to quantify the economic loss recorded by the state, I will put it based on the measure of our GDP of $3bn to be around $9bn, which is probably thrice our GDP,” he stated.
According to Bindir, setbacks in agricultural production caused by the Boko Haram crisis have cut the state’s monthly internally generated revenue from N1bn to less than N200m.
Bindir said, “This state really suffered the impact of the insurgency as investment inflow into the state seriously nosedived. Today, the construction of an inland cargo port by the Federal Government in the state is ongoing, which clearly ascertains the return of peace to the state.
“Also signalling the return of peace is the fact that there’s no single Adamawa indigene in any of the camps operated in the state. What we do have are indigenes of Borno and Yobe, whom we have called on the respective state governments to come and evacuate. We want to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for the peace we are now enjoying in the state.
“It is our hope that the security situation, which has improved, and the peace that is now being enjoyed will be sustained so that investors can now return.”
He also stressed that the state government’s efforts at maintaining internal security during the insurgency cost billions of naira on a monthly basis.
