President Muhammadu Buhari had to reschedule a programme to host the Ghanian President, Nana Kufuor Addo at the presidential villa for two hours to commission a new poultry feed mill worth $150 million in Kaduna State.
The President who inaugurated the plant located at Chikpiri Gabas village in Gwagwada area of the state today, Tuesday said: “I had to tell my Ghannian colleague to delay his visit for about two hours so that I can come and commission this project.”
He said that the project would add value to the diversification programme of his administration in addition to assisting in creating new jobs for the nation’s teaming youth.
President Buhari called on foreign and local investors to take advantage of the huge incentives, including favourable business environment being created by government to invest in areas that would complement the employment generation initiative of the federal government.
“This project is very important to us. We are determined to encourage those who are coming to invest in Nigeria to invest in areas where our people can get jobs, particularly in the non-extractive industry.
Considering the importance of the project to his administration’s policies of boosting agriculture, President
Buhari assured Olam group and other investors of his government’s continue support and partnership in several other investments.
The Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai thanked President Buhari for finding time out of his busy schedule to commission the feed mill.
He noted that this was the first public outing of the President since he returned from a medical vacation in London, adding that his presence was a rare boost of confidence to Olam group and other investors interested in making huge investments in similar projects in the country.
Governor el-Rufai said that the feed mill was designed to produce 1.6 million day-old chicks weekly and 360,000 metric tonnes of animal feed annually.
He said that the project would add value to Nigeria’s quest of achieving food security and economic diversification.
“What we are seeing today did not happen by chance. This is as a result of careful investment promotion that the Kaduna state undertook to attract Olam, a company that was born in Nigeria in 1989 but emigrated to Singapore to become one of the world’s largest agri-business.”
Governor el-Rufai said that the project is one of the states’ largest single private sector investments which will encourage small farmer holders. At the commissioning ceremony were the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbe; minister of trade and investment, Okechukwu Enalamah; minister of state Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; minister of sports and youth development, Solomon Dalung; Kebbi state governor, Atiku Bagudu; Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi; the Emir. Zazau and chief executives of vrious private and public organizations. [myad]
