Nigeria has the economic potential to generate N1.3 trillion revenue by adding value to cassava, the Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has said.
The country can earn $427.3 million (about N188 billion) from domestic value-addition to cassava and earn additional income of $2.98bn (N1.2tr) in agricultural exports of cassava annually.
The Executive Director of PIND, Dara Akala stated this in his speech at the National Cassava Seed Summit in Abuja on Thursday.
‘’Also, Nigeria has the economic potential to generate revenues of $427.3m from domestic value-addition and earn an income of $2.98bn in agricultural exports of cassava per annum. Furthermore, local value-addition to cassava via local manufacturing and processing could potentially unlock about $16 million in taxes to the government per annum’’, Akala said.
The PIND executive director said quoted a PwC (2020) estimates that Nigeria would need about 28.3m metric tonnes of fresh cassava roots planted annually on about 1.2m hectares of land to meet the country’s demand for some of the cassava by-products and derivatives.
He said PIND had invested almost $800,000 to increase cassava productivity, strengthen coordination and relationships of cassava value chain actors, and promoted improved technologies for cassava production in the Niger Delta region.
He added: “Through this, we have effectively reached approximately 300,000 farmers with information and training and facilitated the creation of almost 2,500 jobs and a network of 150 service providers.
But he said the large-scale cassava processors require a reliable, healthy and timely supply of fresh cassava roots to feed their mills on a continuous basis.
A director at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Alfred Dixon , said that Africa is spending about $35bn annually importing food.
