Tony Osauzo, Benin

Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, yesterday, said, under the bank’s Oil Palm Development and Expansion Initiative, N30 billion has so far been disbursed to the oil palm sector. 

Emefiele, who said the disbursed money is painstakingly being monitored to ensure efficient and effective utilization and maximum output, called on state governors to help the country through access to land for oil palm cultivation.

He lamented that $500 million of the country’s scarce foreign exchange was being expended on importation of palm oil to meet identified unmet demand gap of 1.25 million metric tons and called for a reverse of the situation.

He also said the country’s total domestic palm oil demand and consumption which stood at 2.5 million with local production capacity availing 1.25 million metric tons must change

Emefiele spoke in Benin at the Plantation Owners’ Forum of Nigeria Oil Palm Discourse -Focus on CBN Smallholder Oil Palm Intervention.

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He said the primary objective of the gathering was to exchange ideas and garner support to revive the oil palm industry and its entire value chain through financing major, macro, small and medium entrepreneurs and smallholders in the country.

“I am excited that we have arrived at this juncture as in pursuance of the avowed objective of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to enhance economic diversification through agriculture. We will pave the way for greater and more endearing developments in respect of the development of the Nigerian oil-palm sector,” he said.

In his comment, Governor Godwin Obaseki said the state government is already leveraging on development of oil palm production as God-given natural wealth to develop the state, saying it presents thousands of opportunities apart from job creation, industrial growth and others.

He said oil palm is synonymous with All Progressives Congress logo which is derived from the palm, adding that the whole gamut about Plantation Owners’ Forum of Nigeria Oil Palm Discourse -Focus on CBN Smallholder Oil Palm Intervention, was to develop the economy of the state like that of Malaysia.

Obaseki said the principal goal of the forum is to leverage what the CBN has initiated by removing all the risks involved in the cultivation and production of palm oil.