Miss Catriona Laing, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria has pledged the readiness of the UK government to promote agribusiness for sustainable development in the country.
Laing made the pledge when she led a delegation of UK officials on a strategic partnership visit to Dantata Foods and Allied Products Ltd. in Kano on Wednesday, in a statement by Mr Sanusi Ahmad-Bature, the General Manager, Corporate Services of the company.
She said the UK government became more interested in promoting agribusiness in Nigeria to ensure sustainable land usage as the country was endowed with excellent land resources that could benefit many countries across the globe through food production, processing and packaging.
“We will provide the necessary enabling environment and facilitate investment opportunities in agribusiness to promote bio-economy, address challenges of climate change and food security,’’ she said.
She appealed for more attention by the industrialist on the UK markets for Nigerian processed foods.
Addressing the visiting team, Alhaji Tajudeen Aminu Dantata, the Chairman of Dantata conglomerate, said that the partnership would further help to tackle food insecurity, abject poverty and effects of climate change.
He said that agriculture was an impetus for economic growth and a driving force for their concerted efforts to invest in the food value chain.
“Our renewed commitment is to provide jobs and food sufficiency in Nigeria and beyond. We will soon be servicing the Middle East and European markets in addition to other African countries that we are already engaged,” he said.
Dantata reiterated the company’s commitment to creating more investments in food and agro-allied sub-sector of the economy to support the global drive for food sufficiency.
He said Nigeria had all the potential to feed a significant percentage of the world’s population if the available land resources were carefully and strategically utilised.
The Dantata conglomerates are Dantata Foods and Allied Products Ltd., Thumos Dantata Agriculture Ltd., and D’ Afric Global Resources Limited.
The Dantata Company, British Department for International Development (DFID) and the British High Commission to Nigeria agreed to work together on promoting agribusiness in Nigeria.
According to the statement, the visit was a follow up to the just concluded UK-Africa Business and Investment Summit held in January 2020 in London, UK.
Leave a Reply