The African Development Bank (AfDB) has promised its unflinching support to assist food and agro processors by providing a conducive business environment and financial backing to boost their businesses.
The Senior Special Adviser to the AfDB President on Industrialisation, Prof. Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, stated this during a courtesy visit to the Managing Director, Spectra Industries Limited, Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos, Duro Kuteyi, who doubles as the National President, Association of Food and Agro Processors (AFAP), at firm’s headquarters.
Prof. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka noted that the renewed drive of the bank is to identify and support sectors that have competitive advantage, such as the food processing industries, noting that one of the moves is the creation of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) in some states.
He added that the bank plays two major roles – to advocate between bank and the business owners and also advocate between the bank and government, stressing that one of the results of the bank’s steps is the newly commissioned cotton plant in Ogun State.
“The idea of the SAPZs is to have hectares of land, provided with water, road, power and other facilities, so that entrepreneurs would have access to all these in the course of doing their businesses without challenges.
“What anyone who is interested in either the existing ones or those in the pipeline should do is just to apply. “This is nothing new. In Vietnam, they have about 700 industrial parks located in just two provinces. We are late, but never than ever. This is the method used in Asia and this is the only way to help our country,” he said.
He urged the AFAP members to give their feedback on their pressing challenges, noting that the bank will do analysis, produce report and take the necessary steps, to get help for the businesses.
In his speech, Kuteyi, who took the AfDB representative on tour of the factory, noted that big industries and multinationals are hijacking business within the scope of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), hence the need for government’s ‘protection’ for the survival of small businesses.
“We have run to the National Assembly to ban the exportation of agro raw materials because this is killing value addition in the country. Once the exportation of these materials is thriving, SMEs are in danger.
“Niger Republic comes to Kebbi State to buy our onions; they keep it in good conditions, and then later export it as their own, who is losing? For Soybeans, when it is in season, some keep it, but majority of them are exported, which means small businesses may not be able to get the produce to process.
“Let us process raw materials locally, that’s the only solution that can work and only people in food and agro processing that can do this.”
