Cross River State Governor, Sen. Bassey Otu, has credited his administration’s “People First Agenda” for reviving the state’s economy, citing the reclamation of the Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort and a $3.5 billion Afreximbank facility for the Bakassi Deep Seaport as flagship achievements.

Speaking on Tuesday while receiving the Governor of the Year for Economic Revitalisation award from Blueprint Newspapers Limited at the Bola Ahmed International Conference Centre, Abuja, Otu said his government had recently reclaimed full ownership of Tinapa from the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), describing it as a “battle fought and won for all Cross Riverians.”

Gov. Out who was represented by his Special Assistant on Media, Abuja, Emmanuel Ogbeche, said the resort would now be repositioned as a Free Zone for trade, tourism and creative enterprise, with government already in talks with investors to run the facility under a “transparent and accountable management structure.”

On agriculture, the governor said his administration was partnering multinational agribusiness firm JR Farms to plant 30 million coffee seedlings statewide, a project he said could make Cross River one of the largest coffee-producing areas in the country and West Africa. He also pointed to the Cross River State Smallholder Cocoa Allocation Scheme, under which over 3,400 hectares of farmland have been allocated to smallholder cocoa farmers, alongside distribution of oil palm seedlings, fertilisers and pesticides to farmers across the state.

Otu added that a six-year, N30 billion agriculture credit guarantee scheme, known as Project Grow, had been introduced to give farmers easier access to financing to scale up operations.

On infrastructure, the governor disclosed that the Obudu cargo airport was over 90 per cent complete, while the state-owned carrier, Cally Air, now operates four aircraft following the acquisition of two new Bombardier jets.

He also referenced the return of the Carnival Calabar festival, saying it had grown “bigger and getting better” under his administration, and invited Nigerians to attend the December edition.

On the proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport, Otu said the project had been listed among nine seaports nationwide under the Federal Government’s National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy, describing it as “a national asset capable of unlocking regional prosperity.”