By Abdulrahman Abdullahi
The Managing Director of Crown Flour Mill, Ashish Pande has reiterated the need to enhance the value chain of local wheat in the country.
The Manager who was represented by Damilola Adeniyi, the Corporate Affairs Manager, Olam Nigeria, said this at Abuja, during a courtesy visit to the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige recently.
Pande said that the rising consumption of wheat derivative foods in the country has stimulated further job opportunities at the production, processing, distribution, warehousing and retailing levels of the wheat value chain.
“Presently, the wheat value chain accounts for over 10.5 million jobs generated annually in Nigeria. This of course has placed the wheat value chain at the centre of the various economic development agenda of the federal government of Nigeria,” Pande said.
He explained that the flour millers continue to take bold developmental steps through scaled investments in critical areas including seed trial and research, training of smallholder wheat farmers, and funding of the various farming research institutes in the country to ensure that the current local production level of the wheat crop improves significantly.
“While these efforts have ensured that we keep providing affordable and quality food for the growing Nigerian population, they have also helped to increase the number of jobs being created for the active segment of the population,” he said.
“Overall, the investment efforts, which extend to capacity building initiatives for bakers, are beginning to yield positive results,” he added.
Stressing further on the importance of the local wheat value chain, Pande said that while prices of other major national staple foods such as rice, garri, yam, and beans have risen sharply by 3.2percent, 6percent, 5.3percent, and 13.4percent, respectively, in the past months, the prices of wheat derivative foods have been largely cushioned from the inflationary trend by local millers and bakers who continuously absorb the extra cost of production to keep feeding the population.
In response, BusinessDay reports that Ngige lauded CFM and the other millers for their economic development drives.
“The Ministry of Labour and Employment is committed to supporting efforts that are geared towards providing good jobs for Nigerians and ultimately growing the economy.”
“No doubt the minister expressed his delight over the extensive investments that the Olam group has made and continues to make in Food & Agricultural value chain stating that the level of investment presently being channeled into developing the value chain is of paramount importance to help reduce the level of unemployment and underemployment in the economy,” he said.
