WITH $2,000, FOOD PROCESSORS CAN START BUSINESS

OLUYINKA ALAWODE
Against the backdrop of a
growing number of start-up
small and medium scale business
people giving lack of funds as the
reason for their inability to start
their preferred businesses, Anga
Sotonye, a food processing
expert, has stated that with a
sum of N328,000 or $2,000,
anyone can go into and make a
success of food processing
business.
Sotonye spoke at the 29th
edition of the Omolayole Annual
Management Lecture series
which held recently in Lagos,
with the theme “Agricultural
Innovation and Contemporary
Investment Opportunities.” He
spoke on the topic: “New Path to
Wealth: Micro and Small Scale
Food Processing in Africa.”
The event was well attended by
students, captains of industry
and top government officials
where Sotonye, coordinator,
agribusiness and youth
empowerment, Community of
Agricultural Stakeholders of
Nigeria (CASON) delivered the
address.
Anga said that the capital outlay
required to set up any micro or
small-scale agribusiness that
adds value to primary agricultural
products and crops will range
between as little as $2,000 and $
45,000 (N328,000 and
N7,380,000).
He called on governments in
Nigeria and across Africa to
provide incentives that will
support and encourage young
people to establish small scale
food processing businesses as a
way to reduce unemployment
and poverty in the continent. He
added that supporting such
initiatives will result in several
economic benefits for any
country in Africa including taking
the youths off the streets,
reducing crime rate, restoring
dignity to young people and
guarantee market for farmers
and farm produce.
Commending the current
administration’s drive at
boosting agribusiness, Sotonye
said many Nigerians now see a
good future in agriculture. “So
many farmers who abandoned
farming some years ago are now
returning to it, and this is
because they now see a future in
Nigeria’s agribusiness.”
He further said the message was
becoming clearer by the day to
leaders and financial institutions
that lending to the agricultural
sector in Nigeria must be at a
single digit interest rate period.
“You will kill our farmers when
you lend to them at 26 percent
per annum. Agribusiness is not
cocaine business, but once the
sector is well supported and
strengthened, we will see
Nigerian farmers doing
agribusiness, making good profit
and someday, we will see
farmers own their own private
jets and helicopters because they
need these for serious business.”
By: OLUYINKA ALAWODE