By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Malaysian government to develop palm biomass in the country as part of efforts to utilise one of the undertapped farm produces in the country.
Mr Alphosus Inyang, President of the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN), made this disclosure, saying palm biomass is a multi-billion dollar economy.
“Biomass simply means agricultural waste and we are talking about turning waste into wealth,’’ he said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
The president said NPPAN was working with its counterpart in Malaysia to replicate what was happening in Malaysian palm biomass and other biomass, in Nigeria.
He said that the development of palm biomass could contribute $10 billion to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within four years and generate over five million jobs within five years.
Mr Inyang said that Nigeria generated millions of agricultural waste annually, adding that signing the MoU will enable the country to produce industrial goods, generate electricity, produce medicine and fertiliser among others as applicable in Malaysia.
He said most of the furniture materials being imported like the high-density fibre wood, medium-density fibre wood and other products being produced from biomass could be produced within the country once the MoU was in place.
“This gesture will help to regenerate our environment because most of these things are being ploughed back into the soil and help to gain carbon credit for Nigeria; it will also help in preserving our forest, conserving our environment and creating jobs.
“The palm tree is 90 per cent biomass and 10 per cent palm oil.
“So, the palm tree, the trunk, is biomass, the palm kernel shell makes up fibre, the empty bunches, palm front and many other parts of the tree are biomass which are currently been wasted in Nigeria.
“But in Malaysia, it has become a multi-billion dollar economy.
”They are using this biomass to generate electricity, to produce furniture material, produce organic fertiliser, medicine and a lot of things.
“We have gone around many of these factories in Malaysia and they have agreed to sign an MoU with our government to replicate the same thing in Nigeria,” he said.
The NPPAN president said that the association was currently working with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment for the development of the National Biomass Master Plan for Nigeria.
Mr Inyang identified the plan as a template or policy document that would serve as a guide to the implementation of palm biomass.
According to him, the MoU is between the Malaysia Biomass Industry Confederation and NPPAN, adding that the master plan would be in place on or before June 2024.
He, however, appealed to the government to quickly facilitate the development of the National Biomass Master Plan for Nigeria.
Dipo Olowookere