The Nigerian government has said it has plans to set up 142 agro-processing centers across the country, with one center in each of the six geo-political zones in each senatorial district.
The government has said the development will help revolutionize the Nigerian agricultural sector.
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said this in Abuja on June 3 along with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sab Nanono, while briefing journalists on the implementation of the program entitled “The Green Imperative,” a bilateral Nigeria-Brazil agricultural development programme.
An Agro-Processing Center is a manufacturing site where all facilities required for pre-treatment, processing, drying, packaging, storage and (optional) marketing (optional) of the raw materials and intermediate products derived from the agricultural sector are available successively.
The Green Imperative Program launched in January 2019 by the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, emanated from the Brazilian government’s More Food International Programme, with the goal of improving smallholder farmers’ productive capacity through tractor provision.
The plan, worth US$ 1.2 billion, is planned to be introduced over a 5-10 year period, with support coming from various international organizations, as announced by the Minister of Information.
“The programme, worth US$1.2 billion, is to be implemented over a period of 5- 10 years with funding from the Development Bank of Brazil (BNDES) and Deutsche Bank with insurance provided by Brazillian Guarantees and Fund Managements Agency (ABGF) and the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Export Credit (ICIEC) of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and coordinated by Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV),” the minister said.
The agricultural sector plays a strategic role in a country’s economic development process, serving their rural populations as the principal source of food, income and employment. But since its discovery in the early 1950s, the Nigerian government prefers crude oil to be the main economic driving force for the nation.
The government has recently lost so much in the oil sector because of the coronavirus pandemic that has affected the entire world, creating more concerns about economic diversification.
Farmers had suffered post-harvest losses in the past due to insufficient agro-processing centers in the region, with negative impacts on farm produce.
Earlier this year, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), the African Development Bank (AFDB) promised to spend $300,000 million on developing the country-wide Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZS).
This aims to boost food security , reduce food imports, and allow food producers, processors, and distributors to operate within one area.
With the plan of the federal government to develop agro-processing centers across the country, Nigeria will be able to resolve post-harvest loss issues which has been a major challenge for many farmers. The project can be linked to AFDB’s SAPZs program to revolutionize the Nigerian agricultural sector.
In addition to developing agro-processing centres, the information minister said the “The Green Imperative” plan would help generate more employment alongside a sustainable raw material supply chain.
“The program will create about 5 million jobs and inject over US$10 billion into the economy within 10 years and impact over 35 million persons nutritionally and economically,” the minister said.
“It will create a sustainable supply chain of agricultural raw materials for our large manufacturing companies to source locally, thereby saving billions of US dollars in food-related forex, and train about 100,000 extension workers within three years,” he added.