A statement on Tuesday, signed by AfDB said it will begin
with a workshop from the 6th – 7th of September, 2023.
It noted that the inception workshop was the first in the
series of the bank’s ongoing stakeholders’ engagements aimed at harvesting
input and harmonising various interests in preparation for the commencement of
the second phase of the SAPZ Program in Nigeria.
According to the statement, 20 states had sent an Expression
of Interest and would be hosted, assessed and hopefully onboarded.
It read, “As the flagship programme of the African
Development Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy, the Nigeria SAPZ Program targets the
twin objectives of food self-sufficiency, exports of processed raw agricultural
commodities leading to job creation and overall economic growth. The strategy
is to target agro-processing activities in areas with high agricultural
potential.
“These zones, an agglomeration model, will bring farmers
(including livestock keepers), agricultural producers, processors, aggregators
and distributors to work together in one location, lowering transaction costs
and sharing business development services to boost productivity and
competitiveness.”
The Director-General of AfDB Nigeria Country Department,
Lamin Barow, said, “In order to kickstart the process for the eventual take-off
of phase II of the SAPZ programme in Nigeria, the bank will hold a 2-day
Inception Workshop on 6-7 September 2023, and a high-level stakeholders’
meeting with some state governors on 8 September 2023.
“These will bring together the Federal and state government
representatives, development partners, and private sector players to identify
and determine commodities and high-potential value chains, sites and locations,
state government readiness, private sector interest and other key enabling
factors.”
The Senior Special Advisor on Industrialisation to the
President of the AfDB, Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka Oyebanji, said the
establishment of the SAPZ in Nigeria was an industrial strategy approach that
was government-enabled and private sector-driven.
He explained that it was designed to stimulate private
sector interest, drive a market-oriented agricultural transformation and to
help develop modern agro-processing capacity across the continent.
Oyebanji said, “Following the recent declaration of a state
of emergency in food security by the President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, His Excellency Ahmed Bola Tinubu, at the inception workshop and
high-level stakeholders’ meeting said he aims to accelerate the preparations
for the take-off of the SAPZ phase 2 in line with the bank’s ongoing efforts to
roll out the programme countrywide.”
“The ultimate objective is to foster structural
transformation of the Nigerian economy by transforming rural poles of misery to
productive zones of prosperity.”