The Social Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCT-SDS), and the Restaurant & Bar Operators of Nigeria (RABON) are calling for modernized investment into the food sector of the country for economic growth.
Speaking in Abuja, the Secretary of the Social Development Secretariat, Aminu Ibrahim, lamented that agricultural practices in Nigeria were still heavily dependent on ancient methods, thus making the sector unattractive to the young population.
“The Abuja international Food and Beverage Expo proposed for 5th to 7th of December, 2023 will give room for us to examine the safety and security of our food.
“This is coming at an important time, we need to pull resources together as many of us that are concerned with this issue of feeding ourselves as well as using food to create wealth for ourselves and families.
“The food sector can also be used in creating employment for the youths as well as to create sustainable development for the country in general”.
Represented by Kayode Aiyegbusi, Ibrahim said, “upcoming Abuja Food and Beverage Expo will be an avenue to display and market to the world all the good food Nigeria has to offer.
“The FCT Social Development Secretariat is proud to be part of the drivers of this programme because we believe it will go a long way in ensuring that our young population are involved in agriculture as entrepreneurs.
“We are still doing our agriculture at the level of carrying hole to the farm, this is unattractive to the youths, it is unattractive to the university graduates, we need to find more modern methods to farm.
“You can only find one or two people who are doing hactares of farm using simple machinery, these are the kind of things we need to put on the ground to attract our young ones into agriculture” he stated.
The Executive Secretary reaffirmed that, “we are ready to partner with anybody who wants to partner in the line of food production or in the line of adding value to our products.
“What we want to try and avoid going forward is the export of food in products in their raw form, before we take these products out, it is important we add value to them so that we can benefit maximally.
“Imagine a country that produces Cocoa, yet we don’t produce Chocolate. We send this cocoa outside the country in a raw form and somebody out there turns it into chocolate and sends it back to Nigeria,” he lamented.
On his part, the President RABON, Dr. Peter Ofuka said the Food Expo will create a platform for Nigeria food to be displayed to the world.
He also noted that discussion at the Expo will be focused on food security and safety; sustainable and regenerative economic development in the sector.
More importantly, the President said free food will be given to participate on the 7th of December, 2023.
. TheWitness
