In its drive to sustain the growth in the Agricultural Sector, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) on the concession of 33 silo complexes in 32 States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory.
The MoC, according to the Minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina was the continuation of the process of synergy with the private sector to manage and operate silo complexes across the country. The silo complexes, according to him, are part of the Ministry's storage infrastructure under the strategic grains reserves.
The network of strategic grain reserve silo complexes were established to among other things; provide immediate food relief in terms of emergencies, provide appropriate mechanism, Guarantee Minimum Price (GMP) scheme to make farmers earn remunerative prices for their produce; provide a mechanism for price stabilization and storage capacity for excess production and reduce post-harvest losses.
Dr. Adesina announced that the 13 of the silo complexes with a total storage capacity of 311,000MT were in existence and operational before the present Government and additional 20 silo complexes are being completed by this government to bring the total number of silo complexes in country to 33, with a total storage capacity of 1.3 Million Metric Tons.
The cost of managing the silo according to Minister is what has brought about concession of the silos as he further explained, "running and managing these huge infrastructure is extremely expensive, at the current guaranteed minimum price rate, about N100 Billion will be required by the Ministry to stock the silo complexes. Government does not have the resources to manage them. We therefore, want the private sector to lease this huge storage infrastructure to improve their management, efficiency and profitability."
The concession, he said, would be done in a transparent manner and in partnership with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in line with the extant regulations.
Earlier in his speech, the Director General, ICRC, Alhaji Aminu Dikko said the MoC would enable due diligent and diagnostic study of the Silo Complexes and develop appropriate economic models for the Public – Private Partnership (PPP) transactions.
The Director of Strategic Grain Reserve, Dr. Jide Olumeko said the signing of the MoC would bring the capacity utilization of the Silos which is currently less than 10% to about 100% after the concession.
The Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between FMA & RD and ICRC according to him would spell out the roles and responsibilities of each party to the MoC towards the actualization of the proposed concession exercise.
Source: ICRC takes over concessioned silos (http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/2012-10-29-11-09-25/news/590-icrc-takes-over-concessioned-silos)