Audu Ogbeh, minister of
agriculture and natural resources, says the federal government will place a
final ban on the importation of tomato paste before the end of 2019.
Speaking in Kano during a tour of
the Dangote Tomato Processing Plant in Kadawa, Kano state, Ogbeh said the ban
will encourage massive tomato production.
According to Ogbeh, the federal
government has set aside N250 billion through the Central Bank of Nigeria and
Bank Agriculture to disburse as soft loans to tomato farmers as part of the
Anchor Borrower scheme.
“Federal government will continue
to encourage Dangote agro-farms and the farmers to grow massive tomatoes in
Nigeria and with this kind of outfit, farmers will earn more with better
seedlings from the Dangote greenhouse and get better results,” the minister
said, explaining that $22 billion is spent on tomato paste importation
annually.
“The farmers will supply to the
processor and eventually join tomato breeders in the world. In a short while,
Nigeria will simply stop importation and dependence on other sources for tomato
supply.”
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor who
was also on the tour, said the bank supported Dangote greenhouse with
N1.3billion to produce hybrid tomato seedlings to enhance massive local
cultivation.
“The greenhouse plant will
produce 3 million seedlings which will supply to farmers. With this hybrid
tomato seedling, farmers will be able to produce over 70,000 tons per hectare
against the 10,000 tons,” he said.
To this end, this output will
encourage farmers to increase their production and provide job opportunity. Let
me emphasize the federal government ban on those foods and other items we can
produce in this country still remain on the banning list.”
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest
man, launched the company in March 2016 to reduce importation of tomato paste.
Operations at the plant, which is
located outside Kano, were suspended in 2016 after an invasion by Tuta
Absoluta, a leaf-mining moth, which destroyed tomato farms.
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