With chanting and dancing the people of Kiniambo village in the Sepik Plains of Yangoru-Saussia District, East Sepik Province welcomed their local member and Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru.
Following the welcome, 10,000 hectares of their grassland were offered to the government for significant oil palm development.
“All they (the Kiniambo people) need now is for the Marape-Rosso Government to come good and support them to have the land surveyed, ILGs registered, and a 99-year State Lease title given to their landowner company. This will allow them to negotiate with the state and other investor partners to develop a 10, 000-hectare oil palm estate and be able to provide enough land to allow the company to build an oil palm mill in Kiniambo,” said Minister Maru.
Kiniambo Councilor, Daniel Sinigawi said, “We do not want the Government nor any investor to buy our land. We want the title to be given to the landowner company so we can convert it to equity and be owners of the project on our land.”
In response, Minister Maru offered to assist them solicit funding to have the land surveyed and the ILGs registered, and work with the Department of Lands and Physical Planning to have the land title given to the Kinimabu landowner groups or clans under the National Government’s Land Mobilization Project.
Minister Maru said, “It will cost between K500, 000 to K600, 000 to survey and complete all the landowner identification work before a state title can be issued to the Kiniambo people.”
“Kiniambo village is in the middle of the vast Sepik Plains and will be in the heart of the Sepik Plains Special Economic Zone. Such a project will create over 3, 000 new jobs in Kiniambu and they will see improved government services including sealed roads, and tax credit funding for their major community projects and needs. I want to assure the people of Kiniambo that I will talk to the Prime Minister to secure land mobilization funds to have the survey completed and state title issued to the landowner company as a priority of the Marape-Rosso Government so other villages can also join this land mobilization scheme for large-scale economic projects.”
Meanwhile, the neighboring villages have also pledged to mobilize their land for oil palm development if the Kinimabo project kicks off.