••• Reiterates The Industry Engages Over 25 million People
••• Seeks Adequate Funding To Generate More Jobs
••• Asks FGN To Compensate Farmers Over Losses Due To Birds Flu
| The Daily Crucible | Wednesday, November 2, 2022
By Heritage Odih, Abeokuta
A gathering of operators and critical stakeholders in the nation's multi-billion naira poultry industry enters a second day today in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, with the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) reiterating that the subsector provides over 25 million direct and indirect jobs to Nigerians.
At the opening ceremony a day earlier amid with renewed hope, the operators also were in agreement that the Poultry industry still has the potential to generate much more jobs to deplete the burgeoning army of unemployed Nigerian youths and create income for them if the subsector could be well funded and supported by governments.
The theme of this year Nigeria Poultry Show is, 'Sustaining the Nigerian poultry industry amidst global economic crisis' and it drew participants from stakeholders including ministries of agriculture from the Southwest States. It is the 10th edition of the PAN Poultry Show.
The National Vice - President, South West Chairman of the Association, Gideon Oluleye, brought it to the fore once again and as a sort of reminder to the critical place of poultry industry in national GDP growth and development. He said the industry provides jobs for over 25 million people, who are largely Nigerians and urged all levels of government, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions to budget more funding to the Poultry industry.
Oluleye called on the federal government to come to the rescue of poultry farmers who were affected by Avian Influenza in recent years to enable them bounce back on their feet financially and productively.
He lamented that poultry farmers lost over 200,000 birds to the flu in the year, which he said eroded their fortunes.
He said, “The poultry industry is a subsector of the Nigerian economy that provides employment to over 25 million people both direct and indirect employment. As a result of this, we are urging the Nigeria government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and other levels of government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to give more funding to the sector, as the sector can generate huge employment opportunities for the jobless youths and earn foreign exchange for the country.
“Other reasons why government must fund this sector the more are the current built-in inflation within the economy that has pushed up the cost of inputs, climate change, dwindling economy, internal security and Ukraine-Russian war which has further taken its toll in impacting negatively the poultry subsector of the country.
“We need some form of compensation from the Federal government for our farmers who lost their farms to the outbreak of bird flu during the year.
“Many of our members lost their birds and their means of livelihood following the outbreak of bird flu. Millions of naira were also lost to the outbreak.
“We recorded huge losses to the bird flu that ravaged the country this year. We are calling on the Federal government to please compensate our members who were affected by this unfortunate incident for the survival of the poultry industry."
Oluleye, however, pointed out the inherent potentials and available business opportunities in the country's poultry industry, citing the huge population of over 200million people and agricultural import of over $4.5bn annually as the anchors, he submitted that Nigeria is the first market place in Africa.
He contended that this huge demographic status placed Nigeria at better market advantage over any other African nation. This presupposed that Nigeria has the capacity to buy and consume whatever poultry products and allied matters that are produced in the country regardless of the quantum. So, people should not be afraid to invest in the poultry industry.
"In terms of available business opportunities, Nigeria being the country with the largest poultry production in Africa, huge opportunities abound in the poultry production and value chain sectors.
"Some of these opportunities are farm planning and management, eggs and broiler meat production and processing. Blast cold room for storage of poultry products, transportation and logistics, veterinary drugs manufacturing and distribution, feed manufacturing and its additives, poultry equipments and many other areas numerous to mention. Some of these areas have yet untapped opportunities that our investors from both local and international communities can tap into," he said.
Also speaking, Idowu Asenuga, Chairman, PAN, Ogun State, bemoaned what he described as massive decline in productivity and profit margin in the industry due to soaring cost of energy, devaluation of naira, spike in interest rates and cost - push inflation among other challenges.
He appealed to the governments and other stakeholders to support the sector with funds, infrastructure and adequate security to keep the operators' hope and to ensure Nigerians have access to quality eggs and chicken as well as meet the ever increasing national protein requirements.
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