From: Noah Ebije, Kaduna
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, commissioned a new poultry feed mill worth $150 million in Kaduna State.
The President, who inaugurated the plant located at Chikpiri Gabas village in Gwagwada area of the state, said it would not only add value to the diversification programme of his administration but would also assist in creating new jobs for the nation’s teaming youth.
The president urged investors both foreign and local to take advantage of the huge incentives including favourable business environment being created by government .
He said they should invest in areas that would complement the employment generation initiative of the federal government.
President Buhari said: “This project is very important to us. We are determined to encourage those who are coming to invest in Nigeria to invest in areas where our people can get jobs, particularly in the non-extractive industry”.
Considering the importance of the project to his administration’s policies of boosting agriculture, President Buhari said he had to reschedule a programme to host the Ghanian leader Nana Kufuor Addo at the presidential villa for two hours to attend the event.
“I had to tell my Ghanaian colleague to delay his visit for about two hours so that I can come and commission this project,”.
The President assured the Olam group and other investors of his government’s continue support and partnership in several other investments.
In his remarks, the Kaduna State governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai thanked President Buhari for finding time out of his busy schedule to commission the feed mill.
El-Rufai who commended President Buhari noted that it was the first public outing by the President since his return from a medical vacation in London.
He said the presence of the President was a rare boost of confidence not only to Olam group but other investors interested in making huge investments in similar projects in the country.
Governor el-Rufai said the feed mill was designed to produce 1.6million day-old chicks weekly and 360,000 metric tonnes of animal feed annually.
He told the gathering that the project would no doubt add value to Nigeria’s quest of achieving food security and economic diversification.
“What we are seeing today did not happen by chance, this is as a result of careful investment promotion that the Kaduna state undertook to attract Olam, a company that was born in Nigeria in 1989 but emigrated to Singapore to become one of the world’s largest agro-business,”.
Governor el-Rufai said the project remained one of the states’ largest single private sector investments which will encourage small farmer holders.
Present during the commissioning ceremony were the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, minister of agriculture Audu Ogbe, minister of trade and investment Okechukwu Enalamah, minister of state Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed, minister of sports and youth development Solomon Dalung, Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu, Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi, the Emir of Zazau and chief executives of vrious private and public organisations.