The President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has called on
investors both at home and abroad to explore investments in the Palm produce in
the country,
NaijaAgroNet reports.
President Jonathan made this call recently while declaring open
the first International Palm Produce Conference (IPPC) in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
He said investors could explore available opportunities in
palm produce industry in Nigeria by taking advantage of investment friendly
climate and various incentives that have been put in place by the present
administration.
The 3-Day conference which was jointly organized by the
Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with the National Palm
Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) has as its theme “Investment in oil palm
and its derivatives, a panacea for economic growth and sustenance”
In his address, delivered by the Hon. Minister of State
for industry, Trade and Investment, Dr.
Samuel Ortom, President Jonathan pointed out that the aim of the landmark
conference was to bring together global stakeholders to share ideas on new
technological development and ways of improving the quality and availability of
palm produce in order to maximize the growing investment opportunities in both domestic
and international palm produce trade.
Also, a press statement made available to
NaijaAgroNet by the Director, Press at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr.
Bolaji Kazeem, the Minister of State was quoted as saying that President
expressed satisfaction with the timing of the conference because, it was
holding at a time when the government has put in place all necessary policies
to create enabling environment and framework for sustainable business and
economic growth in agriculture commodities such as the oil palm where we have
significant comparative advantage.
“As one of our
cardinal goals under the Transformation Agenda, we are unrelenting in our
effort to explore and unlock the enormous potentials of our agriculture. We are
doing this through the rapid transformation of key agriculture value chains in
order to meet our objective of adding additional 20 million metric tonnes of
food to the domestic supply by 2015 and stimulate the creation of over 3.5
million jobs along the agriculture value chains,” he said.
Further, President
Jonathan noted that his government has identified oil palm as one of the
important commodities and key drivers to promote and has intensified efforts to provide enabling environment to
accomplish this task.
He pointed out that Nigeria is an oil palm producing nation
and was a foremost producer and exporter especially in the fifties and sixties,
when the nation dominated the palm produce industry and became world largest
producer and marketer between 1961 and 1965 contributing an average world
production share of 39 percent. He regretted that we allowed this position to
slip out of our hands.
Reassuring investors, he said his administration has
resolved to return to the former glorious level of performance which is part of
our overall commitment towards embarking on the sustainable expansion of the
area under cultivation, promoting the replacement of semi wild grove with
improved planting material, upgrading the quality and number of palm oil mills
and vegetable oil refineries in the country, and expanding our domestic and
international market outreach.
He commended the government and the people of Akwa Ibom
state, his excellencies the Governor of Akwa Ibom state and the Governors of Palm oil producing states,
government agencies, corporate bodies and international partners for various
contributions towards the successful hosting of the conference.
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