The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, together with the Ministry of Finance, yesterday, expressed readiness to partner the Enugu State Government in the development of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SPAZ) in the state.
This was in line with the promise made to the people by the Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, that his administration would establish SAPZ in the three senatorial zones of the state as a way of harnessing commercial agriculture, food production, and rural areas into economic zones.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy, Wale Edun, who was represented by Dr. Akande Oyetola of the African Financial Institutions, while leading the team to Enugu State, described their visit to the proposed over 1,000 hectares of land earmarked for the pilot project as a preparatory mission to ascertain the level of preparedness of the state government for the landmark project.
The minister, who commended the state’s readiness for the SAPZ initiative, having provided over 1,000 hectares of land for the kickoff, with an access road to the farmland, maintained that Enugu had met a good number of the conditions, which a state must fulfill before the intervention of other partners in the development of the agro-processing zones.
The minister said: “We are here to improve the livelihood of the farmers, create investment for them and improve their incentives as they engage in their farming activities. Our mission here is to see what Enugu State has in place to propel the bank to disburse funds for this project.
“I must say that I am satisfied with what I have seen because the state has provided over 1,000 hectares of land, which is one of the criteria a state must have to enable it to participate in this programme. It is one thing to be envisaging participation in a programme and another thing to have the requisite infrastructure. So, the infrastructure we are seeing now is satisfactory to us.”
In his address, the traditional ruler of Owo Community, in Nkanu East Local Council of the state, Igwe Okeke Arum, assured the visiting team that his people had already embraced the development, adding that Owo people would donate additional land if required, and would continue to ensure the success of the project to guarantee food security in the country.
