The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, yesterday said the multi-faceted commodity approach adopted by the bank in its landmark intervention programmes in agriculture, particularly tomato farming had yielded positive outcomes for the growth of the economy.
This is coming as Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-rufai, has also commended the CBN for the various efforts it has so far undertaken to resuscitate key sectors of the economy.
He said the commodity champion model introduced in the first quarter of 2019, to stimulate production of Tomato and strengthen the end-to-end linkages in the value chain from input supplies to the final consumer, had begun to yield results with the mobilisation and validation of about 140,848 farmers from various tomato farmers associations across 25 states of the federation.
Nonetheless, the CBN governor, particularly lauded the interest and confidence which the company’s Managing Director, Mira Mehta had the country, adding that the investment was a testimony of the present administration’s ongoing efforts towards economic transformation as well as ensuring that Nigeria is able to achieve food security.
Noting that tomato represented an important commodity, being one of the main ingredients in hundreds of Nigerian and international dishes as well as in the beverage and pharmaceutical industries, he said its annual production in the country was estimated at about 1.701 million tonnes while annual consumption stood at 2.93 million tonnes.
But he said this leaves an annual supply shortfall of over 1.2 million tonnes valued at about $2.5 billion annually, which is met through importation and smuggling.
The CBN boss further expressed his profound appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for his continued support of the apex bank’s efforts towards diversifying the economy and job creation through focused intervention in critical areas. He added that the CBN’s intervention in local tomato production and processing had become more critical given that tomato is among the commodities that play an important role in the demand for Foreign Exchange in the economy, adding that this had necessitated a holistic approach in tackling related challenges bedeviling the value chain.
However, he noted that intervention in tomato will be financed under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) where farmers would be linked to proximal processors where applicable, or financed to produce fresh fruits for direct consumption, which constitutes the largest use of tomato in the country.
“The CBN, as far back as June 2015, before the current tomato policy was approved in 2017, had excluded importers of 41 items from accessing foreign exchange at the Nigerian foreign exchange markets, to encourage local production. One of the items declared “Not Valid for FOREX” was tomatoes/tomato paste in which the import bill, at the time, was significantly contributing to the pressure on the forex reserves.”
He added that the apex bank was partnering with other big players in the tomato value chain including Dangote Tomato Processing Limited, Sonia Foods, GB Foods (GBF), Vegefresh Company Limited and a host of others towards ensuring that the country becomes self-sufficient in tomato, as well as ensure that processing companies function at full capacity to be able to employ millions of Nigerian youths.
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