Kaduna commends firm over agro-allied investments, job creation

Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has commended the investments and reforms facilitated by an international conglomerate, Olam, as being in tandem with the drive of the state and the Federal Government.

El-Rufai, who said this recently at the ground-breaking ceremony for a tomato processing factory at Kangimi, in Igabi Local Government Area of the state, stated that it was because of the activities of private-sector organisations that the state had become a worthy ground for business, attracting both local and international organisations.

He admitted that private firms added to why Kaduna is ranked as the number one destination for doing business in Nigeria by the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business Report.’ He said: “The Kaduna State government welcomes this latest investment in the agricultural potential of our state. Olam showed the way back in 2017 when President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned its hatchery and feed mill project that is sited in our Chikun Local Government Area.”

The poultry facility, located along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, is the largest of such facilities in West Africa, with the feed mill sourcing over 150,000 tonnes of maize and 75,000 tonnes of soybean from local farmers. El-Rufai said these had encouraged many smallholder farmers to increase the production of the crops.