Goblah Clan citizens long for Sime Darby

Citizens of Goblah Clan in Klay District, Bomi County hail Sime Darby Plantation Liberia (SDPL) and are calling on the company to move into the district to begin planting of palm.

Sime Darby is currently operating in Senjeh District, Bomi County and some parts of Grand Cape Mount County, all in western Liberia as part of its 63-year-concession agreement signed with the Government of Liberia in 2009 for the cultivation of 220 hectares of palm.

Since then, the company continues to positively impact lives of Liberians in the region through health, education, infrastructure and other basic social services.

In their quest to directly benefit from the investment, citizens of Goblah clan in Klay district, Bomi County recently invited the General Manager of the company, Ali Kamal `Speaking during a colorful program held last week in the Klay, a prominent citizen of the clan said after carefully following the works of the company in the county for years, they have realized that SDPL means well for the people of the region and Liberia in general.

Says Abdullah Navoo; “Based on consensus, we have invited the General Manager of SDPL and his team to discuss how they can move into the clan as part of extension for the company.”

Navoo says during the meeting, they discussed about the out-grower scheme and the availability of over 2500 hectares of carbon free land they have agreed to give to the company.

Out-grower scheme is a contractual partnership between growers or landholders and a company for the production of commercial forest products. The schemes vary considerably in the extent to which inputs, costs, risks and benefits are shared between growers/landholders and companies.

Navoo continues, they don’t want to go against the company because it is important to the growth and development of the people.“We want to work together and we say no to theft at the plantation. We know there are some citizens who usually steal from the company at its plantations, we have 2500 hectares of land that is carbon free and the government can even come and conduct assessment to verify our statements”, he underscores.

–Editing by Jonathan Browne