Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe has commended the chairman of the Nigeria AgricBusiness Group (NABG), Sani Dangote for his contribution towards the development of the agricultural sector in the country. Sani Dangote is the Vice President of the Africa’s foremost conglomerate, Dangote Group.
Speaking at the AGRIKEXPO/NABG Conference in Abuja, AuduOgbe said that Dangote’s NABG and Dangote Group are making farming attractive and wooing investors at the same time even as the Dangote Group has invested enormously and created jobs across the value chain.
He regretted that despite the fact that the agricultural sector is the biggest employer of labour and largest contributor to the GDP, the country is yet to maximize its potentials as less than 40 percent of the arable lands are being cultivated.
The Minister said that the theme of the three-day conference: ‘From Food Oil to Crude Oil’, was apt in the light of the need to diversify the economy.
The Federal Government, he said, will soon recapitalize the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and strengthen it so that it would be able to extend credit facilities to Small and Medium Scale farmers at around 7 percent interest rate.
The Minister said that in about 30 years time the Nigerian population would be in the region of 500million people, while the world’s population would hit 10billion, adding that there was need to prepare ahead.
He said that the government was planning a Farmers Day where farmers will be appreciated and rewarded, just as he announced that the government was collaborating with relevant international agencies to bring back Extension Services.
This was even as Sani Dangote said that the NABG is an association for all associations and stakeholders in the agricultural sector, saying that it is interacting with the public sector to revive the sector.
He asked Nigerians to look at the current economic problem as an opportunity to invest in the agricultural sector.
The Coordinator of the NABG, Emmanuel Ijewere said that it is possible for Nigeria to retrace its steps back to agriculture while the NABG as a private sector group is trying to ensure that the entire value chain is carried along.
“Everybody needs everybody in the agriculture value chain,” he said.
Also, the Group Managing Director of the Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) Plc, Engr. Abdullahi Sule said that the Dangote’s sugar master plan is aimed at producing sugar from various locations across Nigeria, including Savannah Sugar Company Limited, in Numan Adamawa State.
“The plan is aimed at producing 1.5 million tons of refined white sugar annually from locally grown sugarcane. In view of the current economic situation, we have broken the projects implementation in phases. Our focus is on Savannah, Lau/Tau and the Niger State project sites.” [myad]
