THE Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Muktar Maiha, yesterday assured stakeholders in the sector that the ministry would liase with the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) towards ensuring a single digit and long tenure loans in the sector.

He spoke during a facility visit to ABIS Ultra Modern Livestock Processing Factory in Lekki, Lagos.
The minister emphasised that the ministry will work on achieving a single digits, pension capital, loan moratorium, and loan payment plan that would drive the livestock sector in the path of growth.

“We do know that there are challenges. We are now going to work with the Minister of Finance, to make sure that capital loans in the agricultural sector are effective. There is no way you can establish an abattoir and have 25%. There is no way you can go to ranching or feedlotting and pay 16-20% and get three to four years.We need pension capital. We need single digits. We need long-term repayment. At least minimum 10 years. That is when that farm will mature, ” Maiha said.

At the tour of the facilities including Abbataoir that process 250 cows per day in certified hygienic condition, Maiha commended ABIS group for bringing modernity into livestock processing business, creating employment opportunities for women and me adding that the ministry will work to ensured that certified abbataoir are created nationwide.

He said: “You can see how neat the facility is, whether you are talking about poultry, whether you are talking about fish, or goats, or beef. That is the way to go. That is our discussion with the executive members of the Lagos State Government.

We are talking about having laboratories everywhere so that we stop bringing lorries, and trailers. You bring process, and culture. You pick up your phone and you order meat. You order processed meat. You can see here all the by-products. The blood, the faeces, the horns, the hooves, the skin, everything is processed. It is also raw materials for other industries.

He pledged that the ministry will not relent until it achieve a separate mandate of transforming the agricultural sector into a modern, profitable, sustainable, and globally inclusive industry for national food security, for job and work creation, and for the stability of the rural area.

Speaking to The Guardian, the Chairman and founder, ABIS Group, Ambassador Emmanuel Usman Nelson, noted that the government support  for livestock production sector
with loans at single digits, will fuel change in the sector rather than existing double digit.
He said the government also needs to fix dilapidated roads for ease of transporting livestocks and ensure access to land towards expanding their business.

He advised that herders in the country to embrace modernised way of rearing livestocks instead of roaming through the forest.

Usman lauded the minister of livestock development, the Lagos State government for the support for operators in terms of granting of approvals to operate and urged them to do in modernising the sector as well as creating more jobs through the livestock development.

He disclosed that ABIS group, a hub for livestocks processing in Lagos has been able to create jobs for hundreds of youths and less privileged women who now trade within the hub over the past five years.