Stakeholders say NAADI pro-activeness will checkmate food imports

·       Akure, Bauchi centres soon

Stakeholders have suggested that active utilization of agro processing centres across the country would be effective to reduce high import bills that are being expended on foods annually in the country, just as centres for Ondo and Bauchi states will soon be opened for operations towards market competitiveness through value addition.

This position was taken at the last month official commissioning of the Owerri office for Nigeria Agricbusiness and Agro- Industry Development Initiative (NAADI) implementation by the Minister of state, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) Hajiya Aisha Abubakar.

Speaking on the occasion, the representative of Director General (DG) Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) Mr. Osita Aoloma said that the high foods import bills have negatively affected agro processing centres from moving the nation’s agricultural produce to more processed products through value addition in an industrialised way.

The SON DG who commended the effort of the NAADI by the FMITI said that ‘’ dependency on import has affected the required value chain linkage between agriculture and the industry, and this has disallowed the country to move its raw agricultural produce to industrial level for the final production of finished goods and products. NAADI will bring about sustained poverty reduction, human capital development and prosperity to the majority of Nigerians’’

In a minister’s speech delivered by the Director of CPI, Mrs. Opelolu Opeewe, the stakeholders were reminded the purpose of NAADI, saying it was meant to galvanise the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aspiration to economic diversification from mono oil economy to agriculture that would ensure employment generation through production and value addition at all the agro centres across the nation.

She added that Nigeria being the hub of Africa’s trade market with largest in West Africa has all the human and other natural resources to achieve more economic greater height with proactiveness of all  NAADI centres as the ones for Ondo and Bauchi states would soon be opened to effective operations.

According to the minister ‘’ the ultimate objective of NAADI is to develop an industrialized and commercialized agricultural sector comprised of highly productive and profitable commodity value chains, towards accelerating the growth and diversification of the economy into differentiated high value products’’

Also in the speech delivered on behalf of Governor Rochas Okorocha by the Imo state Ministry of Trade and investment Commissioner, Hon. Bona Akwiwu, it was stated that an average percentage of both women and men should be engaged in the agricultural activities thereby urging the youths also to be involved.

Governor Okorocha commended the Federal Government for coming up with NAADI saying that the concept will be germane to the strengthening and developing of Agric business and Agric industries in the state and the entire nation.

The State Coordinator, NAADI Mrs Stella Obidiegwu said the centres would serve as a unifying force to all cooperatives farmers and commodities associations, processors, marketers and exporters in the state adding that all challenges of individual group will be addressed in the right perspective.

Also, the President, Federation of Commodity Associaitons of Nigeria (FACAN),  Dr. Victor Iyama pointed that NAADI was a concept created to create both employment and wealth adding that specialization on a commodity is enough to generate wealth when considering the benefits at all the value chains in one agricultural produce like coconut that has ability to generate more revenue to the economy than crude oil.

Present at the occasion are representatives from Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry, Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), and Nigeria Custom with other stakeholders.