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.
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