Launch Of The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Program In Nigeria

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SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE PRESIDENTIAL LAUNCH OF THE SPECIAL AGRO-INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING ZONES (SAPZS) IN ABUJA ON THE 24TH OF OCTOBER, 2022.

 

 

PROTOCOLS

 

 

Let me bring you the warm greetings of President Muhammadu Buhari who would have liked to be here himself but for a previously agreed engagement outside the country.

 

 

It is my singular honour and pleasure to join you at this momentous event, the launch of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Program – the SAPZ Program. It always seems completely intuitive that a nation with large tracts of arable land and relatively cheap labour should be able to feed itself, process food, produce for domestic use and export creating in the process, millions of good-paying jobs.

 

But that is clearly not the case.  What we have today aside from a few large commercial farms, are mainly aggregations of subsistence farmers who do the best they can without the support of a  clear plan for the industrialization of agriculture, the deliberate development of value chains in the crops they grow and a pathway to net exportation of their produce.

 

The result is suboptimal agriculture and food production outcomes, food insecurity, fewer good-paying jobs in agriculture and of late, food inflation. Food insecurity and inflation have of course now been worsened by global value chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine and drought and flooding caused by climate change.

 

The well-thought-out answer to our predicament is the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zone  Program – the SAPZ Program.

 

The program was recently approved by the FederalEexecutive Council. It is a  major cross-cutting value chain investment effort driven by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in alignment with the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy of the Federal Government to incentivise agro-industrialization for private sector development.

 

So specifically, the SAPZ Program is designed to develop multiple clusters of Agricultural Transformation Centres (ATCs) and Agro-Industrial Hubs (AIHs) within major clusters of high agricultural production, where functional infrastructure like roads, power, water, communication etc., are provided to attract private investment into modern agro-processing and value addition to locally produced crops, livestock and related agribusiness activities.

 

So where a zone has an advantage in rice production, for example, the well-resourced SAPZ would be located there to bring together agricultural producers, processors, aggregators, and distributors to operate in the production, processing and industrialization of rice.

 

The SAPZ Program is a five-year program, being implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the  International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), state governments and private investors in seven (7) participating states (Kano, Imo, Kaduna, Cross River, Kwara, Oyo and Ogun) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)  and is expected to achieve in the first phase, the following:

 

  • Import Substitution, which will reduce our current food import bill;
  • Boost revenue from agricultural exports;
  • Create wealth for rural farming communities;
  • Create new sustainable jobs, especially for women and youths;
  • Stem rural-urban migration;
  • Boost rural livelihoods and revive stranded public and private sector-funded assets;
  • Decisively improve food security;
  • And vastly improve the business environment for agro-industrial processors as it will improve their productivity and enable value addition for inclusive, adaptive economic growth.

 

The program is now a critical component of our agricultural strategy, which is to accelerate the industrialization of our agricultural sector with the objective of being ahead of our constraints in providing food, nutrition and wealth for the largest population on our continent.

 

 

The first phase is in 8 locations(states); in the next phase, we will bring on board another 18 States. The SAPZs also stand to benefit from two salutary developments.

 

The first is technology and innovation. There has been an incredible upsurge in the number of agric tech start-ups in Nigeria all along the entire agriculture value chain.

 

Some of those innovations have vastly improved the quality of inputs; some use innovation to improve yields, and some exponentially increase investments in Agribusinesses by various crowd-funding techniques.

 

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is also set to deploy innovative technology and digital skill sets to support the implementation of the SAPZs.

 

 

The other is the great opportunity that the  African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) opens up for Nigeria to be the breadbasket and the agri-business hub of our region. This convergence of resources and opportunity is certainly auspicious for the great impact that we look forward to from the SAPZs.

 

 

The operation of the SAPZs will also leverage other  Federal and State programs including the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP: 2019 – 2028), and the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP).

 

The agricultural sector was pivotal in pulling our economy out of recession and is the single largest employer of labour, so we must incentivise agriculture through greater investments and an enabling environment for private sector participation, and advance our national agro-industrialization drive.

 

Before I conclude, I must say that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) is profoundly proud of the strategic relationships with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Islamic Development (IsDB) over the years in building long term national prosperity for our country through agriculture. And we thank them for their steadfast support through the years.

 

So today we are at a profoundly important moment in our agricultural odyssey. If the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Program delivers on its objectives and we have no doubt that it will, then we would in less than a decade deal a fatal blow to food insecurity, create millions of good-paying agro-industrial jobs and opportunities that have never been seen on this Continent and radically improve export earnings from agriculture.

 

This is why, Your Excellencies and very distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with great hope for the future and in anticipation of great success that I now officially launch the establishment of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) in Nigeria.

 

 

Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!



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