Nigeria to save N1trillion annually from 20 percent inclusion of cassava flour in bread

The former president of National cassava Growers Association (NCGA) Pastor Segun Adewumi has said that Nigeria can save N1 trillion anally from import bil of wheat flour if 20percent of cassava flour is included in bread production.

He also mentioned that in 2014 Nigeria spent billions importing cassava derivatives such as enhance, industrial starch, biofuel,sweetener, saying Nigeria can save up to N3trillion annually from import bill if the items were produced locally.

The NCGA president stated this while speaking at a roundtable dialogue on building a stronger economy through the agro commodity value chain organized by the Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN) at the weekend in Abuja.

While mentioning that Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, Adewumi mentioned that if the potential of the root crop is fully harnessed, it can trigger massive Industrial revolution in Nigeria to the extent that every Nigerian village will have a viable cassava Industry.

He said “For instance, in 2014, Bread bakers in Nigeria utilized 16,600 metric tonnes of flour daily for bread. As at today, I am told that white wheat flour sells for about N650, 000, This is to say if we use around 6,059,000 metric tonnes metric tonne of flour per annum, the cost of the flour that we use comes to N3.9 trillion. Right now, Nigeria is the second highest importer of Wheat in the world. Whereas, Nigeria has expansive arable land and able work force.

“It is also a known fact that bread canl tolerate 40% Cassava Flour, a situation that will make the bread better for our health. Why should we not consider saving at least 20% of the import bill by the 20% inclusion of Cassava flour in our bread.”

“If we start with 20% inclusion, we shall save about N1 trillion annually from our import bill. We would also have repatriated back to Nigeria the benefit of gainful employment for our Farmers, Service providers, and Skilled and Unskilled labor force in our factories which we export when we import what we can produce locally” he stated.

He however lamented that due to high cost of production cassava produced in the country cannot compete favourably at the international market saying while a tonne of cassava is sold at $200 at global market, cost of production of a tonne of cassava is about $400.
He attributed the high price to high cost of production, saying Nigeria, Cassava cannot penetrate the World market because the practice of agriculture in Nigeria is still in the crude form, ad the entire production is manually cultivated.

To achieve a transformation agenda in the cassava value chain, Adewumi called for the establishment of Cassava Development Commission that will be saddled with the responsibility of creating two special programs which Cassava for food security and cassava for industrial usage