The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe recently inaugurated the newly built Agribusiness Incubation Centre (ABIC) in Federal University, Lokoja (FUL), to facilitate massive food production in Nigeria.
The inauguration was part of the activities marking the 6th and 7th Combined Convocation Ceremony of the university which took place recently.
The Permanent Secretary while commissioning the centre, said that the focus of the centre include: enhancing production capacity, value addition, quality control and standards, and opening access to local and international markets for our agricultural produce.
The Permanent Secretary explained: “The incubation centre is being established as a Special Centre of Excellence to support and promote food security in Nigeria, and to support youth and women empowerment as well as promote employment generation, wealth creation and poverty reduction.
“This will be through the development of viable agribusiness and entrepreneurship skills in different agricultural value chains across the country.
“The focus of the centre include; enhancing production capacity, value addition, quality control and standards, and opening access to local and international markets for our agricultural produce.
“The project is aimed at facilitating and attracting investments into the agricultural sector, ensuring survival and sustainability of agri-based businesses and increasing domestic food production and exports, ” he said.
According to him, these centres will also produce young generation of successor farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs who can adapt new technologies and innovations across the segments of commodities enterprise/value chain of production, processing, storage and marketing.
He added: “The centre is equipped to provide business basics through comprehensive training programmes along commodity value chains and business start-ups including access to bank loans and other funds and guarantee programmes.”
“The centre will support market research, linkage to strategic partners, access to investors and the development of business plans and business networking etc.”
The Permanent Secretary expressed satisfaction and appreciation with the support and cooperation of the Vice Chancellor, the academic and management staff of FUL for the successful completion of the centre.
He also expressed the hope that the university would explore the opportunity the centre offers and make the best use of it and prove its support as a formidable institution in the concerted efforts of the government to grow the nation’s economy using the agricultural sector.
Responding, the FUL Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. Olayemi Akinwumi thanked the federal government for setting up the centre in the institution.
Akinwumi pledged to ensure that the institution makes good use of the opportunity offered to it to train the students into becoming big time agriculturalists that would contribute to the nation’s food production and security.
Our correspondent reports that the minster also commissioned a six kilometre road the ministry constructed from the university’s Zoo to the main gate.
