‘Nigeria’s diary industry to generate N300 billion monthly

by Vivian Chizoba Ajoku, Africasti Abuja. The dairy industry in Nigeria can provide millions of jobs and generate a monthly income of about N300 billion naira if the appropriate technology needed to boast the sector is deployed, the Director General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) Engr. Umar Binder has said.
The Director General said, in an address to receive the Registrar/CEO of the Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria who was on a courtesy visit to NOTAP in Abuja, that when a hundred million of Nigerians consume a glass of milk at N100 per glass, it could generate N10 million per day which in turn could create millions of jobs and translate into a N300 billion monthly revenue.
He explained that milk came from cows and that cows ate grass and maize to be productive adding that we have cows, grass and maize but we don’t have milk because we have not deployed the required technology to generate employment, produce milk, create wealth and provide easy and quality nourishment for our economic and social wellbeing.
He further said that Nigeria’s high population of approximately about 200 million is an asset that provides endless opportunities for jobs and wealth creation but regretted that Nigerians are yet to take full advantage of the opportunities so presented.
Engr. Bindir stated that beside dairy products, poultry and local food delicacies in Nigeria also provide opportunities for job creation and poverty eradication if there were firm commitment and the political will to add value to the raw materials available in the country.
According to him, locally available natural resources required value addition to be commercially viable. He decried the continued exportation of raw materials and importation of finished products into the country and commended the Registrar of LRCN for her initiative to partner with NOTAP for the promotion of Science Technology and Innovation (STI) which he described as the bedrock of development.
Earlier in her address, the Registrar/CEO of LRCN, Dr Victoria Okojie expressed her desire to work in collaboration with NOTAP to promote local technologies as well as local content in the country. She said LRCN observed that many Research and Development (R and D) results were not documented in libraries and stressed the need for adequate storage and dissemination of technology information.
‘’ Together, we can achieve much as partners and support the transformation agenda of government in realization of the vision 20:2020 targets,’ said she.

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Posted by Administrator on July 24, 2012. Filed under Food & Agric. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry