Ogbe, Emefiele commissioned the N2 billion Gino Tomatoes processing factory

By Anjorin Usman

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Audu Ogbe, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, on Monday, commissioned the N2 billion Gino Tomatoes ultramodern processing factory in Kaduna State, with a declaration that agriculture revolution in Nigeria was now in full blast as a major economic diversification fulcrum.

The factory, established for tomato paste production, sits atop 100 hectares space, with a farming area of about 30 hectares.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Emefiele said plans were afoot to ban milk importation and save the foreign exchange on it by replicating the Gino Tomatoes success strategy in milk production.

According to him, the days of importing food items that can be produced locally were numbered, as Nigeria has no business importing them judging by her vast arable lands and friendly weather.

He said: “We must thank Mr President for telling all of us that it is time we produce what we eat and eat what we produce.

“From planting to harvesting of tomatoes is between 60-90 days. Our soil is good, our climate is good, so I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be doing what we are doing here today.

“I don’t even know how we have done this in the past, importing these tomatoes. We’ve no option than to ban this (tomatoes).

“There are other products as well. I keep talking about milk for instance. Milk is being imported into the country for more than 60 years, even before I was born. And I’ve told WAMPCO that we need to come back. What do they need to produce milk? Is it not to fatten the cow, give it the necessary nutrients and water and it’ll produce more milk? And yet they said milk cannot be produced in Nigeria. We will confront that. They too should get ready to join in this train,”