Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Chairman of Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Mr Ezekiel Ibrahim, has said poultry farming presents the best in terms of return on investment (ROI) anyone can think of.
Mr Ibrahim made this disclosure during the launch of an intervention programme aimed at reviving the comatose poultry sub-sector in the country at the Abuja office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday.
At the event, the poultry farmer said Nigeria would not have been talking of job creation if the sector had been given the right attention it deserved, noting that poultry business had faced the challenges of smuggling and lopsided siting of hatcheries, which he said was making it difficult for the movement of day-old chicks across the country.
Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who was represented by his Deputy in charge of Economic Policy, Mr Joseph Nnanna, explained that the initiative was in fulfilment of the apex bank’s resolve to diversify the economy, create jobs and engender inclusive economic growth in the country.
According to the nation’s chief banker, the central bank carefully selected various institutions across the country that would form the pilot team to be used in running the university-based poultry revival scheme.
He said the programme will produce chicken meat and eggs in order to reduce importation and close the existing demand and supply gap, adding that it would also raise a new crop of entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector in modern poultry production; provide infrastructure that would support the sustainable production of poultry; and reduce pressure for foreign exchange demand through import substitution by local poultry production.
The Governor also disclosed that the bank had obtained information on the capacity of the institutions selected in terms of their poultry pens, hatcheries, feed mills, size of crop farms and number of tractors for grains production.
The bank also got details of their commercial viability, bankable business plan, including processing facility, as well as all information relevant in enriching their participation in the programme, he said.
Mr Emefiele further disclosed that the CBN relied on the university-based poultry production model because they had existing infrastructure, experience and human assets to enable production at reduced cost and in a competitive manner.
He promised that the bank would commit considerable human, material, and financial resources in monitoring both the disbursement and utilization of the funds to be released to the institutions, adding that the participating institutions would be required to submit periodic returns on disbursements as well as an analysis of the impact of the fund they receive.
The CBN, according to him, would also undertake regular on and off-site checks to ascertain veracity of the reports received.
