From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Bauchi State governor, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, has called on the Chinese government to take advantage of the administration’s reforms to invest in the state.
The governor stated this yesterday while speaking during a business summit meeting at the Government House, Bauchi, attended by the Ambassador of China, Cui Juanchan, as well as local and international investors.
With over four million hectares of arable land, the governor said the policies of his administration had made the state one of the most attractive states to currently invest in Nigeria.
The fifth largest in terms of area at 45,893km and seventh most populous state in the country with close to eight million people, Governor Mohammed told Chinese and local investors why the state holds the greatest potential for investments, especially in agriculture.
“Our livestock potentials at the moment, at the rudimentary and traditional level, is over 2.2 million heads of cattle, 3.5 million sheep, 5.2 million goats, 8 million poultry and tonnes of fish annually,” he said.
The governor urged the Chinese government to deploy its technology used for importation of fish to revive the struggling pilot fishery project in the state.
He said he would be glad if the technology was made available to investors coming to invest in fishery in the state to boost fish production.
He disclosed that the state has quality value chain in terms of sorghum, soya beans, cowpea, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, seismic seeds and so on, which runs into millions of naira, adding that his administration was planning to establish a proper stock system where excess produce of farmers would be purchased to improve their lot.
“We have so much excess to harvest but in terms of storage, we do have much capacity,” he observed, adding: “We need silos, and if we can do it together with the Chinese, we can begin to export our local produce.”
In his response, the Chinese ambassador noted that agriculture is the key to conquering hunger and commended the state government for taking numerous initiatives to fight hunger by reducing poverty through reforms in agriculture.
He assured that the Chinese government was ready to invest in the state in view of the huge potential in agriculture and the willingness of the administration to attract investments through needed reforms and policies.