Agricorp International, Nigeria’s agriculture producing, processing and export company, has invested N4bn into acquiring poultry production facilities across three states in Nigeria.
A statement from the firm on Monday said this move would help the company to deepen its portfolio to include livestock production, processing and eventual export, while providing employment and contributing to reducing the poultry meat deficit in Nigeria.
The statement said, “Since its launch in 2018, Agricorp has specialised in the production and processing of spices through which it has empowered over 5,000 smallholder farmers and helped increase their income by about 20 per cent while providing them with better market access to sell their farm produce.
“It is now ready to open an opportunity for more Nigerian youths to join the agricultural value chain by providing them with the requisite skills and capacity needed through ‘Project Eclipse 2025’, its poultry development programme.”
With Project Eclipse 2025, Agricorp stated that it aimed to invest over N20bn in the production, processing and eventual export of poultry products.
“This investment is expected to provide direct and indirect employment for an estimated 100,000 Nigerian youths by 2025,” it stated.
According to Agricorp’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth Obiajulu, “The rising inflation rate in food and agricultural produce poses a challenge that stares us in the face. Our dependence on imported food items also contributes to the pressure on foreign exchange.
“Investing N4bn in 142 poultry pens across Kwara, Kogi and Nasarawa states will boost local poultry production by at least three million poultry birds per annum. At kickoff, the project will create a minimum of 1,500 jobs and contribute slightly to easing the pressure on foreign exchange caused by the importation of poultry into the country.”
Agricorp’sCo-Founder, Wale Omotimirin, said, “This is a massive project for the business. We have an ambitious goal to produce 40 million poultry birds by 2025, which will represent approximately four per cent of the projected annual demand.”
– Punch