Sule assures investors of adequate security in Nasarawa

Nasarawa State Governor, Mr Abdullahi Sule, on Tuesday assured an agriculture firm, Newpal Nig. Ltd, and investors in other sectors in the state of adequate security.

Sule gave the assurance while commissioning a fully automated agro-processing, aggregating, export and commodity trading facility belonging to the company in Keffi.

He said that his administration would ensure that investments in the state were adequately protected.

He stressed that his administration would continue to encourage private investment and partnership towards accelerating agricultural development and industrialisation of the state.

The governor acknowledged that Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) had become necessary in economic development of the state, given dwindling revenue accruals from the Federation Account to the state.

He said: “There is a need for concerted effort to diversify our sources of revenue and synergise with private partners for the industrialisation of the state.

“This administration is committed to partnering private investors like Newpal.

“As we all know, investors play significant role in stimulating the economy and as such, the state government has entered into partnership with several private investors.

“I encourage investors to invest in the state and on our own part, we will continue to guarantee necessary security to protect the investment of entrepreneurs in the state.

“You are aware of the presence of army barracks, Air Force Base and very soon, Police College, Mobile Police Training Centre and additional police squadron will be in different locations.

“The presence of these security facilities will continue to strengthen our security.’’

On the agro-processing facility by Newpal, Sule commended the company for initiating such laudable project to help in improving agriculture.

“This facility, with an output capacity of 20 tonnes per hour was constructed by a private initiative and consists of a production facility, state-of-the-art laboratory and others.

“With this high-class processing and production facility, the outfit will add value to the agricultural food supply of the state.

“It will also ensure employment generation and improvement in the living condition of the people of Nasarawa State,’’ he said.

The governor disclosed that the state was endowed with enormous agricultural potential consisting abundant natural and human resources and availability of land for agricultural production.

According to him, the state is blessed with over 2.7 million acres of arable land suitable for varieties of crops for consumption and export.

Sule expressed optimism that the effort in revamping agriculture would create wealth and generate employment in the state.

Earlier, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Newpal, Mr John Samuel, had said that the goal of the company was in alignment with the vision of the state government in providing food security.

He said that the company was in support of government’s drive to create employment, increase farmers’ income and more importantly, curtail post-harvest losses which had been the bane of agricultural production.

“Statistics show that Nigeria loses over 40 per cent of its farm produce due to poor storage infrastructure and value addition,’’ Samuel said.

He commended the Federal Government for its effort at diversifying the economy through agriculture, remarking that CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme had assisted many farmers to produce million metric tonnes of grains, among other commodities.

“This is a clear signal that the present government is irrevocably committed to revamping agriculture,’’ he stressed.

He, however, stated that in spite of the achievements made so far, Nigeria still had a long way to go in meeting its food and nutritional requirements.

According to Samuel, Agriculture sector is bedevilled with numerous challenges, including high interest rates, poor infrastructure, poor mechanisation support, lack of extension service providers, low productivity, multiple taxation and inaccessibility to genuine farm inputs.

He said that while Newpal management would play its part in repositioning the sector, government needed to create enabling environment, infrastructure, guaranteed minimum price and support to research among others.

“At the rate at which the population is growing, government must not allow the country’s demographic advantage to become demographic disaster.

“It behoves the government of the day, therefore, to articulate policies and programmes in collaboration with private sector to transform the Nigerian agricultural value chain,” he said.

Samuel urged the state government to convert and gazette the land around Newpal in Keffi for industrial and warehousing purposes, to allow for cluster industries.

According to him, this will add value to agricultural and solid minerals commodities, create jobs and increase Nasarawa State’s capacity to collect more taxes to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).