The Nigerian government said it will soon complete the construction of its quality laboratory, located in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Minister of Industry, trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Thursday, at the weekly Ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.
Adebayo said the completion of the laboratory would boost government’s effort towards exporting more products abroad.
He said: “In order to improve the exportation of agricultural products, my Ministry took the Federal Executive Council a National Quality Policy, to make sure that the quality of goods that we produce and we export are of international standard.
“We have partnered with the AFREXIMBANK and the first quality lab that is going to be in operation in Nigeria, I think should be ready by the end of this year. It is in Abeokuta, Ogun State, whereby, Nigerian goods would be put to the quality test and be certified by one of the international inspection agencies and once they get that certification, anywhere they are shipped to in the world, there would be no problem.”
The Minister further disclosed that the country is to establish agro-processing zones in all parts of the country in collaboration with the African Development Bank, where about $400 million would be invested by the bank and its partners.
“Rather than just exporting raw materials, we are encouraging people to add value to those raw materials because doing so will also create jobs here in Nigeria. So, we are in talks with the African Development Bank and we are waiting for their Board to just approve the facility
“We are going to have special agro processing zones, eight States are in the first phase and once the approval is given, the contract will be awarded for the setting up of these processing zones whereby people will set up companies and manufacturing facilities for the processing of our raw materials,” Adebayo explained.
Insecurity Challenge
The Minister said security challenge confronting some parts of the country was the main reason why Nigeria fell off the list of top 10 preferred investment destinations in Africa.
It would be recalled that a report, released last week by a South African banking institution, showed that Nigeria had fallen to the 14th position on the ranking list.
While reacting to the development, the Minister of Industry said several factors including the state of security were responsible for the decline.
However, he said, government is doing all that is necessary to return Nigeria to its position.
“The reasons for that are various, the major one being the security problem that we have in the country. You are well aware; the Nigerian government is making every effort to resolve the security problem so that we will go back to the position of being the preferred investment destination.
“However, having said this, the feedback that I have begun to get lately from some of the people, the foreign governments that I have been meeting, is that our position is getting better because there seems to be a big interest now again in investing in Nigeria. So, I’m sure as time goes on, we will begin to see an improvement in that situation”, he said.
