200,000-Capacity Yam Silo For Benue Farmers, Other Facilities Coming
AMINA HUSSAINI, Abuja
The federal government is working to inaugurate a 200,000-capacity facility for yam storage for farmers in Zaki Biam, Benue state as part of fresh measures to support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.
The facility will be helpful to yam farmers whose produce is now part of items for export to earn foreign exchange.
The facility which is a shared scheme is one of the innovations from the national MSMEs clinics and form part of the fresh stimulus package in the works for business owners in the informal sector.
Others that are also underway are the Leather shared facility in Anambra, Fashion shared facility in Lagos, and the Furniture shared facility in Kugbo, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT).
The storage facility is due soon and is a component of the fresh several stimulus packages from the federal government that will be released in due time to MSMEs.
The new stimulus package is complementary to the N50 billion package that was earlier announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in March for households and the informal sector that is now being disbursed by Nirsal microfinance bank through an IT platform deployed by Inlak.
Special Assistant to the President on MSME in the Vice President’s office, Tope Johnson said shared facility schemes will be launched across the country to provide necessary infrastructure and support facilities in production clusters across the country for MSMEs.
Johnson spoking during a virtual press briefing on the forthcoming National MSME award in Abuja which nomination opens Monday, June 1, said the shared facility scheme was designed so that MSMEs can jointly share and have access to facilities they hitherto cannot access individually.
The MSMEs award and the fresh stimulus package are parts of the government’s effort to further mitigate the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic on MSMEs.
“Later this year, the Benue state shared facility project located in Zaki Biam will be launched. The Zaki Biam cultivates 60 percent of all the yams Nigerians eat and they have a very large yam market” he noted.
The storage facility when launched will solve the challenges about storage that is the major problem of farmers in the area.
“The facility is solar-powered, they will be able to store their yams better, there are shades too that are provided,” he said.
Part of the reasons for the National MSME clinic, according to Johnson is to facilitate “the building of the shared facility where they can store their yam” while the Nigeria Police will keep watch on the facility to ensure the security of the building.
Johnson revealed that from Benue, the clinic “will be moving very quickly to Anambra state to launch a shared facility for leather works we are 70 percent into that and almost ready.”
From there they will proceed to Lagos to launch a fashion shared facility. “We are also 70 percent gone on that and we are having discussions with Kaduna, FCT at Kugbo furniture market.
This year’s MSME clinic award will be different as all award recipients and other participants and guests will join the event via video conference from different locations across the country.
The portal for the nomination of MSMEs for the 2020 MSMEs Awards open on Monday, June 1 2020 for a period of 4 weeks, and all registered MSMEs in the country can be nominated in the different categories.
Every MSME qualifies for the award as long as the business is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and has a Tax Identification Number (TIN).
Comments are closed.