Nasir-El-Rufai: Kaduna State Governor

The Kaduna State Government on Monday said it was collaborating with the Federal Government and the World Bank to establish a world-class Ginger Hub in Kachia Local Government Area of the state

Malam Dahiru Abdullahi, Information Officer, Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Kaduna.

Abdullahi said that the state, through the Federal Government-World Bank assisted programme on Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS), would establish a Standard Ginger Corridor in the area.

He said that the state government planned to establish a new processing plant, in addition to reviving the old one that had been abandoned and shut down for decades.

Abdullahi said the facilities, when fully in place, would create thousands of employment opportunities for Youths and Women and would attract local and direct foreign investments.

“The Kaduna State Government has entered into collaboration with the Federal Government and the World Bank to carry out the first intervention ever by government in the Ginger Sector, through a project known as “APPEALS”.

He said the state had already released N48 million as initial capital to APPEALS for the take-off of its programmes.

“A study carried out by DFID and SYNERGOS Nigeria revealed that ginger had the highest potential to impact positively on the economy of the state and lift people out of poverty.

“The study also revealed that developing the Ginger Value Chain would more than quadruple the gains.

”And as a result, Gov Nasiru El-Rufai has concluded arrangements to revive the moribund Kachia Ginger factory, established but abandoned since 2003.”

“The governor had inspected the abandoned factory in January this year and promised to get it back into operation to reduce the hardship, Ginger farmers faced in processing the product.

”This will also stabilize the price of Ginger in the state,“ he said.

The state government, according to the official, had set up Ginger Aggregation Centre at Assako, near Kachia, with a storage capacity of 75,000 mt and Ginger cleaning facility as part of effort to improve product standards.

“The State Government is collaborating with the Federal Government, through its Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, set up another Ginger Processing Plant near the Aggregation Center at Assako.

“This is in line with the state government plan to create a Ginger Hub in the area for a full value chain development of the product, which is adjudged one of the best in terms of quality in the Global market,“ Abdullahi said.

The official said that some experts would soon conduct surveys and collect data to develop a framework to enhance Global best practices in Ginger farming.

“ The idea is to enable the state, being Nigeria’s major producer of Ginger, benchmark the country’s product in the global market.

“Nigeria’s Ginger is grown commercially only in Kaduna State, with its quality adjudged to be among the best at the international market.

“However, production and processing remain traditional without mechanization and technology which makes it substandard.“