Green Harvest Foodstuff: Obla visits Otukpo cassava factory, hails CEO Joshua Apeh 

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Godwin Obla, SAN, has commended the management of Green Harvest Foodstuff for investing in agriculture and food processing, describing the company as an example of the kind of enterprise capable of creating opportunities and driving economic development in Benue South.

Obla made the remarks during a visit to the food processing company, where he congratulated its Chief Executive Officer, Joshua Apeh, and the workers for their efforts in building the business.

Addressing employees of the company, the legal practitioner urged them to treat Green Harvest as though it were their personal business, stressing that honesty, loyalty, hard work, commitment and discipline were essential to the survival and growth of any private enterprise.

“You know, first and foremost, I want to congratulate all of you. Being a pioneer is very important. You are the foundation of this business. Take this business as your personal business,” Obla said.

He urged the workers to remain committed to the company during both difficult and prosperous periods, noting that employees have a responsibility to understand the challenges confronting a business and work with management to overcome them.

“In good times, be together. In bad times, be together. If you’re only together in good times, nobody needs you,” he said.

Obla also encouraged the workers to see their experience at Green Harvest as an opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge that could eventually help them establish businesses of their own.

“The lessons you will also learn from looking after another person’s business, you’ll set up your own business someday,” he said.

He further advised the workers to maintain a direct relationship with management when they have grievances, while discouraging what he described as unnecessary agitation for unionisation within the private enterprise.

Obla also shared the example of his driver, whom he said had worked with him for 21 years, using the relationship to illustrate the importance of loyalty and trust between an employer and employee.

‘Benue South can become global carbohydrate hub’ – Apeh

Speaking separately in an interview with IDOMA TV, the CEO, Joshua Apeh explained that Green Harvest Foodstuff was established as a food-processing company focused primarily on cassava and other agricultural products.

He said the company processes cassava into food-grade ethanol, alcoholic ethanol, garri, cassava powder and cassava chips, while also producing groundnut oil, yam powder and livestock feed.

According to him, his decision to invest heavily in agriculture was inspired by the importance of farming to the people of Benue and particularly Benue South.

“An average, a normal man is a cassava and yam farmer, and a farmer generally. And we, the Benue South people, or the Benue people, agriculture is our heritage. This is what our ancestors are known for,” Apeh said.

He said his vision was to create a platform where farmers could produce with confidence because they would have access to markets and off-takers for their agricultural products.

“I have a need to build a ray of hope for our people, where our people can have something they can rely on, where our people can go into agriculture, into farming, especially cassava and yam, and they will have where they can sell, who can off-take from them, who can encourage them to do more,” he said.

Apeh said Benue South had the potential to become a major centre for carbohydrate production and processing, arguing that the region should move beyond the production of raw agricultural commodities to developing a complete value chain.

“This Benue South that we are today is supposed to be a hub for carbohydrate where the world can come and source carbohydrate from,” he said.

He also linked the investment to youth employment, saying Green Harvest was designed to create opportunities for young people while ensuring that agricultural resources produced in the region were processed locally.

According to Apeh, the company’s location in Benue South is strategic because of the region’s cassava production.

“Where is the factory? Where is the processing? Where is the added value?” he asked, stressing the need to establish a stronger cassava value chain in the region.

He said the development of such a value chain could create jobs, support farmers and increase the economic value derived from cassava production.

“We are supposed to have a proper cassava value chain. And on this basis, we can sustain Nigeria, we can sustain West Africa, we can sustain Africa, we can become a carbohydrate hub for the world entirely,” Apeh said.