Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has pledged the support of the apex bank to state governments, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for their self-sufficiency efforts.
Speaking when he paid a visit on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory along with representatives of major diary companies today, February 27, Emefiele rolled out some key initiatives of the apex bank that will help boost job creation as well as fast-track the processes leading to the allocation of land in the capital territory to the three companies that had requested for land to establish dairy processing plants.
The companies are FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc and L& Z.
The CBN Governor expressed confidence that the establishment of the companies in the FCT would drive industrialization, stimulate local production of milk and the development of the local dairy sector.
He said that the move would also boost employment generation, facilitate linkages along the dairy sector in Nigeria and conserve huge foreign exchange for the country.
He said that the collaborative effort by the CBN and the private sector, particularly under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) and the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), has started to yield significant results with deliberate measures by the companies to embrace the backward integration and boost job creation.
Emefiele cited the Bobi Grazing Reserve in Niger State, where 31,000 hectares of land had been allocated by the State Government to dairy companies, adding that local dairy breeds would enhance milk collection and integrate the local pastoralist as well as curb the farmers-herders clashes.
The Governor said that the bank is working closely with other stakeholders to ensure that products are taken off farmers at an agreed price with the farmers, and that the bank is making effort to revamp the Abuja Commodity Exchange to ensure standardization of prices.
In his remarks, the Minister of the FCT, Alhaji Muhmmad Musa Bello commended Emefiele for his passion in revamping the Nigerian economy, saying that the intervention policies of the bank under the Muhammadu Buhari administration had worked.
He called for the establishment of a price stabilizing mechanism to guarantee prices for farmers to encourage them to always return to farm, with the assurance of their products being taken off them at harvest.
Musa Bello pledged to facilitate the provision of land to the companies to enable them to establish their processing factories within a short period of time, even as he disclosed that the FCT masterplan envisaged four grazing reserves in Bwari, Karshi, Gwagwalada and Rubochi.
