The Federal Government on Saturday commissioned the Agribusiness Incubation Centre (ABIC) at the Federal University Lokoja (FUL), Kogi, to boost food production and security in Nigeria.
Commissioning the project in Lokoja, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, said the focus of the center included enhancing production capacity, value addition, quality control, and standards.
He said it would also open access to local and international markets for agricultural produce.
He said: “The incubation center is being established as a Special Centre of Excellence to support and promote food security in Nigeria and to support youth and women empowerment as well as promote employment generation, wealth creation, and poverty reduction.
“This will be through the development of viable agribusiness and entrepreneurship skills in different agricultural value chains across the country.
“The project is aimed at facilitating and attracting investments into the agricultural sector, ensuring survival and sustainability of agri-based businesses and increasing domestic food production and exports,” he said.
The perm sec said that the center would serve as a practical knowledge hub where the best practical skills, processes, and inputs could be acquired on particular commodities.
According to him, the centers will also produce a young generation of successor farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs.
Umakhihe said such farmers could adopt new technologies and innovations across the segments of commodities enterprise/value chain of production, processing, storage, and marketing.
“The center is equipped to provide business basics through comprehensive training programs along commodity value chains and business start-ups, including access to bank loans and other funds and guarantee programs.
“The center will support market research, linkage to strategic partners, access to investors and the development of business plans and business networking etc,”
He expressed satisfaction and appreciation for the support and cooperation of the vice-chancellor, and the academic and management staff of FUL for the successful completion of the center.
Umakhihe also expressed the hope that the university would explore the opportunity offered by the center and make the best use of it, to prove its support as a formidable institution in the government’s efforts to grow the nation’s economy, using the agricultural sector.
Responding, the FUL Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olayemi Akinwumi, thanked the Federal Government for setting up the center.
Akinwumi pledged to ensure that the institution made good use of the opportunity to train the students, to make them become big-time agriculturalists that would contribute to the nation’s food production and security.
The minister also commissioned a six-kilometer road constructed from the university’s Zoo to Lokoja-Okene Road.
