SAPZ central to Tinubu’s food security agenda – Minister

Sen. Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, says the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) is central to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s agenda on food security agro-industrialisation and inclusive economic growth.
The minister made the remark at the opening session of a two-day SAPZ1 Implementation Acceleration Dialogue and States Steering/Technical Committee Workshop on Monday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that SAPZ is a an agro-industrialisation programme designed to create integrated, agriculturally focused platforms to accelerate private sector investment in value-added agro-processing.
The core objective of the programme is to unlock opportunities for improved food security, job creation, import substitution, rural poverty reduction and increased contribution of agriculture to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Kyari said the objective of the two-day workshop was to deliberate on the existing challenges and forge an accelerated implementation plan that would enable stakeholders achieve President Tinubu’s food security agenda.
“The strategic focus is to set modalities for increased production of cassava, rice, maize, cocoa, tomatoes and livestock amongst the designated SAPZ priority crops in all seven participating states, and the FCT for this upcoming dry season.
“The decision to implement the design, build and operate (DBO) model for the development of the zones is a welcomed development.
“By December 2024 we will have concluded the process of on board DBO service providers for site development,” said Kyari.
He said 500,000 direct and indirect jobs would be created through the programme and about 2.5 million temporary jobs would be created along infrastructure development and related services.
He added that the potential economic benefits of SAPZ programme acceleration, amongst others, included some additional metric tonnes of food to the nation’s food basket.
He stated that the SAPZ programme would improve the yield of staple foods from five to 10 per cent to about 50 per cent to 100 per cent, and reduce post-harvest losses from 45 per cent to 20 per cent.(NAN)