Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has urged the Federal Government to establish processing mini-industries in every state of the Federation to boost the Agricultural Sector of the economy.
Igbere TV reports that Kalu, who represents Abia North in the Senate, made the call at plenary while contributing to a motion on “The need for continuous implementation of policy reforms for the diversification of the Nigerian economy through the Agricultural and Solid Minerals Sectors.”
The former Governor of Abia expressed confidence that the mini-industries would ensure that cash crops like cashew, groundnut etc were processed into products thus creating a value chain for export and employment in the Agricultural sector.
Senator Kalu who is also the vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other financial institutions, commended the Federal Government’s efforts in building Silos (storage facilities) across the country, but, however lamented that most of them were not being put into use.
“A lot of cash crops were produced but were neither sold nor consumed because the prices were going down. In supporting this motion, I would like to encourage the Federal Government of Nigeria to also extend a mini-industry scheme for processing food either maize, groundnut, chew nuts and other cash crops that we produce in this country.
“During the early days of China they started by producing food for consumption only so as the people can be fed with, and after feeding the people, the next step was processing. As Governor in 2006 we produced a lot of Cassava but the produce could not be exported. So I encourage the Federal Government to recapitalize the Bank of Agriculture because the bank is not doing enough.
“For certain reasons the Bank of Agriculture are not doing enough in making available facilities, loans and so on to farmers. I also call on the Federal Government to pump more grants to Agriculture”, Kalu said.
“In supporting this motion, I want the mini-industries established all over the states in Nigeria, like Mao of China was able to establish mini-industries in China. When you produce a lot of these foods without processing and converting them to their secondary stage, it ends up not being useful to the society.
“I know in Ogbomosho of Oyo State, for example, a lot of mangoes are produced but we still end up importing mango juice into the country.
“If the Federal Government can provide a special fund for the creation of Mini-Agro Industries people in that area can process the mangoes or store them in silos (storage facilities). We have a lot of Silos that the Federal Government built all over Nigeria, but if you apply to make use of it they will say no it is owned by the Federal Government. I know one in Umuahia-Okigwe expressway. I have seen many and even applied to make use of it to store palm kernels but the request was not granted”, he added.
“The market money was N500 billion. Why would you want to give away N500 billion when N10 billion could have been given to states to establish mini-industries and Agricultural plants so that they can process these crops and it could generate employment and create wealth?.”
At the end of the deliberations, the Senate urged the Federal Government to establish a Solid Mineral Development Commission to formalize all activities of illegal mining inorder to generate additional resources for the economy via tax collection.
The Senate further advised the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to collaborate with relevant agencies to push for tax holidays and zero tariffs for import of agricultural and agro-processing equipment.
On his part, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said the heads of Agriculture and Solid Mineral ministries should come up with road maps on what they want to achieve within the next four years on the diversification policy.
