Nigeria’s Agro Processing Zones Programme on course – Minister

The Nigerian Government says its programme on the floating of special agro-industrial processing zones across the country has reached an advanced stage.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of this month’s meeting of the National Economic Council presided over by Vice President, Kashim Shettima in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He said the processing zones were established under a special programme of the Ministry, in conjunction with the African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Islamic Development Bank, State governments and private investors.

“At the National Economic Council the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security made a presentation to the Council in respect of a special agro industrial processing zones in conjunction with some international financial organizations, the State governments and the private sector.

“This programme started in 2022 with seven States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) keying in for the first phase. These States are Kano, Kaduna, Kwara, Ogun, Oyo, Imo and Cross River, with the FCT being the 8th partner.”

According to him, the programme will go a long way in boosting agricultural activities as well as the processing of agricultural products.

“It is a one-stop shop that will be sited in very urban areas and where you will have food production, aggregation and processing of agricultural produce. This is an initiative that will attract private sector investment that will add value to our agro processing and unlock a lot of opportunities that will improve food security and job creation,” he added.

The Agriculture Minister further disclosed that the agro-processing centres have the capacity of creating between 3000-5000 jobs each.

“The quick wins here are tha even at the stage of construction, each of these centres has an opportunity for 3000 jobs and at the nd of the construction, opportunities will be there for 5000 jobs in each zone and then also to support about 100 thousand farmers.” He explained.

Kyari emphasized that the agro-processing centres would also help address the challenge of losses related to lack of processing and storage facilities.

He said the first phase started in 2022 will last for five years but preparations have also gone far for the commencement of the 2nd phase.

Furthermore, the Minister announced that the 2nd phase of the programme would be introduced next year, with 26 States already showing interest to participate in the programme.

He added that the African Development Bank had already pledged $1 billion support for the implementation of the 2nd phase of the scheme.

“On the next phase, we have already received expression of interest from 26 States so far. The 2nd phase is supposed to kick-in from next year, beginning with documentation. There are only three States of Abia, adamawa and Yobe,” he stated.

The Agric Minister revealed that the National Economic Council approved the accelerated transmission of the Special Agro Procession Zone documents to funders by the Ministry of Finance.

The Minister also revealed that the Council approved the grant of waiver from the Ministry of Finance for the payment of performance allowance to project Staff by the funders as requested by the project executing agency in order to avoid implementation risks.