The Federal Government, with the support of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has disclosed plans to launch a
N10billion fund for the National Egg Production Scheme (NEPRO) in the
country.
The target of the scheme is to achieve a daily
production of 50million eggs over the next five years for the purpose of
local consumption, export and processing into egg powder for use in
confectionaries and pharmaceuticals.
The Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, during a press conference announcing
the launch of the programme in Ondo State, last Friday disclosed that
the programme would provide one million jobs nationwide through egg
production, processing and marketing.
Noting that there may
have been a loss of four million jobs in the city last year, he said an
additional six million jobs were created in the rural areas in the last
two years, and additional one million jobs from the egg production would
increase the number of jobs created in the sector.Ogbeh disclosed that
the loan to be provided by the CBN will be disbursed by the Bank of
Agriculture (BoA), at a single digit interest rate of nine percent, and
would be piloted in six states of Abia, Cross River, Ondo, Kebbi, Kogi
and Ondo.
Ogbeh explained that if the loan is approved by the CBN
each farmer would get N4.2million with repayment spread over 30 months,
each farmer would be self reliant with physical assets worth over
N2.8million and cash assets of N1.68million.
The programme would
also develop local capacity for the processing of minimum of 75 percent
of table eggs, produced shelf table egg based products such as egg
powder.
The Chairman, Tuns farm, Tunde Badmus, the anchor person
for the programme, commended the government for the support given to
poultry farmers, saying it was the first time they were getting such
support from the government.
The project will be officially
flagged off today (Friday), nationwide and would help conserve foreign
exchange through the provision of egg processing machine to turn egg
into powder.He said: “the secondary aspect of the production is
processing that is capable of crushing 200,000 eggs per hour. The
factory is expected to take off in June this year, because it is
expected that the eggs would start coming out from that period.”
He
disclosed that they are in talks with the Nigerian Railway Corporation,
to provide a railway coach that would be specifically designed to
convey eggs from different parts of the country to the processing
plants.