During the SAPZ Phase II Inception Workshop in Abuja, the National Coordinator, Dr Kabir Yusuf said that the SAPZ program of the AfDB has come to stay and to help the citizens of Nigeria.
While addressing stakeholders during the workshop, the National Coordinator gave an analogy of the benefits of SAPZ in the country using one value chain in cross-river which is Cocoa, he said “70% of the world’s cocoa is being produced by four countries in west Africa including Nigeria, Cameroon,and Cote d’ Ivoire.
“One commodity obtained from cocoa is chocolate. It’s a $100 billion industry but unfortunately farmers from these countries get only 2 percent from this, because we do not add value to our commodities. So imagine if we are able to process our chocolate to at least chocolate dusk how much of that trunk of a $100 billion industry we would be getting, it’s enormous.
“So these are the benefits we will be bringing to your communities. SAPZ would transform your rural communities into secondary communities, this way you would be reducing the rural urban migration, reduce crime when people are gainfully employed.”
“These are our timelines to 2027 when we will be handing over to private sector, particularly a capable private sector that would continue running the SAPZ program.” He said.
He however, noted that what is expected from the onboarded state, is an expression of interest, which would ideally come with their feasibility study.
“There are over 21-23 states seeking for this loan and we might not be able to fund them all, so it would be a first come first serve thing, it would also be on the basis of their presentation, so we will pick the state that has the most robust plan and that can also pay back the loan within the stipulated time.” He added
