TOS NEWS
The Federal Government on Thursday unveiled the 2nd National Maize Pyramids in Kaduna.
This is under the Central Bank of Nigeria and Maize Association of Nigeria Anchor Borrowers programme, which according to Godwin Emefiele, the bank’s governor, has achieved its desired objective aimed at curtailing food import and enhancing self Sufficiency in maize production.
President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier this year unveil bags of rice paddy numbering one million stacked as pyramids in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Considered to be the biggest of its type in Africa, the pyramids are located on the grounds of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) on Airport Road.
Nigeria is the 13th largest producer of maize in the world, and the 2nd in the African Continent after South Africa.
The annual consumption of maize stood at 12.38 million metric tonnes as at 2021, with 60 per cent of it being consumed by the industrial sector, but despite being the second producer of maize in sub-Saharan Africa, there is still a supply and demand gap of over four metric tonnes of the product.
President Buhari, represented by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Mohammed Abubakar, said the unveiling of the pyramid would tell the good story about the Nigerian maize farmer with the support of various support programmes like the Anchor borrowers’ programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has helped in closing the gap between supply of maize grains and its demand by domestic and industrial users.
He said the relentless efforts and support of the administration to diversify the economy through the Agricultural sector, which contributes almost 30 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are being manifested.
