The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that its partnership with the Niger state government for a ranch at the Bobi grazing reserve is meant to improve the local production of milk.
The Special Adviser on Development Finance to the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, Mr Anthony Ifechukwu, revealed this during an inspection of work at the Bobi grazing reserve with the state Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger.
He said the local production of milk is important for the creation of employment and because Nigeria spends 1.5billion dollars a year on milk importation.
His words, “What we are saying is that what we can produce in Nigeria we don’t have to import because by continuous importation we are not allowing our people to maximize their full potentials.
”For every litre of milk we import, you have 14 jobs created there and that means those jobs are lacking in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is spending about 1.5billion dollars per annum on milk importation and we felt with the resources Nigeria has there should be a reversal.
”So we are partnering with the Niger state government to ensure the facility and the environment for this initiative to run is there.”
”WAMCO is already on ground here and there is an Irish firm that wants to come here as well.
“Wamco is going to do 10,000 hectares and you can see their tractors working and the same time they are building infrastructure like milk collection center, boreholes and a hydroponics unit.”
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