NIGERIA: FCTA TO SET UP AGRIC SERVICE STATION

To boost agriculture and food
supply in the territory, the
Federal Capital Territory
Administration(FCTA) has
completed plans to set up
agriculture service and
technology centre to support
farmers in the territory.
The Minister of State for FCT,
Olajumoke Akinjide disclosed this
yesterday in Abuja while playing
host to the Bank of Agriculture
Executives in her Office. Akinjide
said that the centre would be a
dedicated facility to support the
farmers, which would consist of
laboratory for soil test, extension
service, irrigation and all other
facilities.
She explained that it would make
farming and research easy and
would be built under Public-
Private Partnership (PPP)
agreement with a firm in Israel.
She said: "Agriculture is one of
the cornerstones of the
President's transformation
agenda; we have been mandated
to make it smart through the
mechanised farming, agric
service and technological centre.
"It will be a dedicated facility to
support the farmers, it will be
constructed under a PPP with an
Israeli firm that will be as low as
ever".
The minister also harped on the
need for food security, wealth
creation and the need to replace
ageing farmers to increase
agricultural productivity.
Earlier, the Managing Director,
Bank of Agriculture, Mr.
Mohammed Santuraki said the
bank had given out N50 billion
for the past 10 years, while 6,000
enterprises were created and six
million direct and indirect jobs
created.
Santuraki noted that the
challenge faced by the bank was
that most cooperative societies
in Nigeria were not organised,
stressing that most of them
disband immediately they were
given the money.
According to him, "in the last
couple of years, we have
repositioned the bank to make it
even more impactful and
financially sustainable.
"We have created alliances with
the state governments and other
domain stakeholders", he said. "I
wish to express our readiness to
match up whatever is released to
us so as to increase outreach
and food production level in the
FCT. This is a tested approach
and we have no doubt that a
significant proportion of farmers
and agro-entrepreneurs in FCT
would benefit from this scheme",