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Nigeria to Earn $100m from Grain Supply to Chad By Crusoe Osagie Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Malam Adamu Bello has said the counry will earn not less than $100 million in October from the supply of 3,000 metric tonnes of sorghum to Chad. Bello told newsmen in Lagos yesterday during the launching of the Nucleus Estate Initiative of the Agriculture and Food Security Policy Commission of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group said that the $100 million will be paid by the United Nations as aid to Chad under the World Food Programme (WFP). Bello explained that the 3,000 mt of sorghum to be supplied to Chad before the end of October will be drawn from Gombe and Jigawa storage of the strategic grain reserve. He, however, expressed his disappointment in the private sector for their inability to take the challenge of making the supply without the involvement of government. "3,000 metric tonnes of sorghum is to be delivered to Chad under the World Food Programme and the fact that private sector players have been unable to respond to the $100 million business opportunity is not encouraging," he said. Bello said since the inception of the present administration in 1999, the government has made frantic efforts to revive the agricultural sector and the efforts have yielded very positive results. He said an indication of the prosperity of the agricultural sector is the fact that the growth in the sector has been two times the growth in population. "Records show that the growth of the agricultural sector has been two times the growth of the population," he said. "The growth in the agricultural sector has also helped seriously to deflate the inflation growth which would have been much more alarming but for the growth achieved in the agricultural sector," he added. He said the administration has achieved the highest volume of grain storage ever recorded in the history of the country stating that they have even gone ahead to store several metric tonnes of garri some of which they will take to the market very soon. He however urged bankers to reduce the interest rate on loans for agricultural purposes. "Interest rate should not exceed 10 per cent in Nigeria. Many countries have achieved this and so it is not impossible for us to do the same," he said. Who Are We ? | About THISDAYOnLine.com | THISDAY People | Contact Us © Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited

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