Photo Caption: CBN Gov, Godwin Emefiele, (middle) flanked by Elemure of Emure-Ike, Dr Paul Obanua, CEO of Greenfield Limited and Ondo State Governor, Arakurin Rotimi Akeredolu, cutting the tape to formally break the ground for the construction of the Greenfield Egg powder production plant.
Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday said a total of N55.526bn has been disbursed to over 250,000 farmers who cultivated almost 300,000 hectares of rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soybeans, cassava farmers among others since commencement of the Anchor Borrowers Programme in November 2015.
Speaking at Emure-Ile, Ondo State, on Friday, February 23, 2018, shortly before he and the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of Greenfield Integrated Poultry and Powderized Egg Facility, Emefiele said the implementation of partnership with state governments and several private sector groups, had helped to create about 890,000 direct and 2.6m indirect jobs.
He restated the CBN’s commitment to work with state governments in supporting small holder farmers and processors across other items that can be produced in the respective domains.
The CBN Governor who spoke on “Engendering the Growth of Nigeria’s Poultry Industry”, said the move was directly in harmony with the resolve and vision to create a professional and people-centred Central Bank that will act as a financial catalyst for job creation and inclusive economic growth.
He tasked state governments in Nigeria to take advantage of opportunities in their respective states to boost the agricultural sector in Nigeria, even as he pledged the bank’s support to any State Government committed to agriculture.
Emefiele emphasized the need for interested state governments to take advantage of the many opportunities to develop the agricultural sector in their States in order to provide jobs, reduce the level of unemployment in the country and drive growth.
In such ways, he continued, the Nigerian economy would receive massive boost through the non-importation of agricultural produce, which he stressed Nigeria had no business importing.
While reiterating the charge of President Muhammadu Buhari, to Nigerians to “produce what we eat and eat what we produce”, Emefiele emphasized that the attention focused on agriculture was a good strategy.
“Agriculture can still be used as a catalyst for creating jobs, reducing unemployment and driving growth in Nigeria,” he noted, even as he recalled that the ban on the importation of chickens in 2003, with the exception of day old chickens, boosted the poultry industry in Nigeria.
With the commencement of the Greenfield Integrated Poultry Facility, Emefiele expressed optimism that the implementation of the ABP in Oando would be tremendously expanded.
Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, urged all states to support ranching as a way of boosting the quality of meat produced in the country, emphasising the need for other states to key into agriculture as a way of boosting and diversifying the economy.
Also speaking, Managing Director of Greenfield Assets Limited, Dr. Paul Obanua thanked Emefiele and Akeredolu for supporting the project, which he noted is the largest in Africa and the Middle East.
Highpoint of the ceremony was the cutting of the tape and unveiling of the plaque to formally flag-off the construction of the Greenfield Egg Pasteurization and Powderization Facility with the capacity of producing 10 million broilers per annum farm with 4,000 birds per hour meat processing plant; a 600,000 layers farm for the production 100 million eggs per annum; two 20 tons per hour Feed-mill and a 500,000 Eggs per day Egg Powder Plant. The plant would create about 25,000 jobs, earn the country over $1 billion in foreign exchange savings and boost increased incomes for poultry farmers in Nigeria.
The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with a capital requirement of N28,369,276,360 to be invested in capital equipment and working capital, involves Big Dutchman International providing technical and operational management of the project. Other parties to the project are Marel Food Processing Company BV, a leading global provider of advanced processing systems and services to the Poultry, Meat and Fish industries, and Actini SAS.
