Ms Rehab Danladi, Managing Director, PET Group of companies, says that tapping the rich divergent Agro produces in Nigeria has the potential to solve the country’s foreign exchange challenges and boost the economy.
She said at a media discourse on Monday in Abuja, that Nigeria would be placed on the limelight to compete with the world best export market if properly harnessed.
Agro Farms, an affiliate of the PET Group, is set to start up a farm that will harness palm trees to get palm oil, processing them into vegetable oil and other by-products.
” Nigeria is the 7th largest producer of palm kernel and palm oil in high demand globally but can only get FOREX for Nigeria if maximally harnessed and exported.
According to her, Nigeria should be making money from the production of palm oil, but there is not enough for the local market, hence the export potential is not utilised.
“We are looking at Kogi State; a Nigerian from Kogi for instance, has no idea he has ‘gold in his backyard’; Kogi has the highest input of perm kernel and Nigeria is richly blessed with a lot of wealth from its farms.
“We’ve been here for 37 years, I have toured round the length and breadth of this country, exploring its rich diverse resources; we are all set to go, we have 40 plots of land in Kogi and a lot of youths will be meaningfully employed.
“There’s a lot for Nigeria to gain in this business because 80 per cent of our products will be for the export market while 20 per cent will be going into the local market.
She said prices of vegetable oil and soya beans oil would be subsidised in the Nigerian market.
“It’s a value chain thing, nothing is wasted, the shell from the palm kernel will be converted into poultry food; we are also exploring the cashew market in Nigeria.
“The total production of raw Cashew in NIgeria is 1.4 million metric tonnes; cashew is being gotten from Nigeria and exported outside the country only to come back as processed Cashew bought by Nigerians.”
Danladi said Agro farms was investing N150 million into the Nigerian Market, aside the cost of land and machineries. (NAN)