Patrick Olowookere, Corperate Communications and Brand Public Relations Manager, made the disclosure to newsmen during a facility tour in Ado Awaiye in Iseyin area of Oyo State on Wednesday.

Olowookere said the company was always looking at ways to partner with local farmers and processors to develop agricultural value chains that would strengthen the economy and save foreign exchange.

According to him, through these partnerships, many farmers have been impacted, especially through its out-grower schemes in sorghum production.

He said: “Over 250,000 sorghum farmers have benefited in the northern agronomical zones as at 2013, producing over the 100,000 tons the company needs annually.

“That is enough to meet our production for our growing customers. We want to try as much as we can to further reduced the volume of imported of raw materials.

“By 2020, Nigerian Breweries would have finalised plans to increase its sourcing of raw materials from 57 to 60 per cent, the margin is small but apt.

“Psaltry International Company Ltd) a Food Grade Starch producing firm and others in sorghum is what gives us the assurance of quality products to suit the needs of our consumers,’’ he said.

Olowookere said that the firm uses CSRO 1 and 2 species of sorghum because it had a higher yield of two tons per hectare and had certifications from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and a Rural Development.

Olowookere also said that Psaltry Company was the only partner producing Food Grade Starch for Nigerian Breweries.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the processing plant, Mrs Yemisi Iranloye, said that the distance of transporting harvested cassava to cities like Lagos and Akure prompted the location of the plant.

Iranloye said that the company now satisfied farmers who were treated as agents in the business through trainings, provision of hybrid cassava stems, fertilisers, pesticides and others.

“What really steered my coming to this community was the fact that having had experiences in the system, I understood the huddles farmers had to go through to transport their produce to urban cities.

“Most of the time, the cassava would have gone bad and farmers would be at a loss because the companies will not pay them, now we have been able to solve that problem.

“Currently, NB is one of our major client off-taking 60 per cent of our Food Grade Starch used as binding agents in producing most beverages, foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

“Farmers in the community have been empowered over the years to increase production to 500 hectares through the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme of the Centrl Bank of Nigeria (CBN) driven by us, and in the first year remitted 95 per cent.

“Through these, we are always in production even when the country had challenges in availability of cassava recently, we had supplies to service our customers like NB,’’ she said.

The plant has an installed capacity of 50 tons of processed starch daily and it is currently producing below capacity of between 20 to 30 tons daily.

The company also recorded that it saved $4 million as import substitution in 2015.

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Falana, who stated this in a speech delivered at the Foursquare Gospel Church owned Life Theological Seminary, Ikorodu, on Sunday, said despite assurances by President Goodluck Jonathan and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, there was no indication that the election will hold as billed.

He also warned of the likelihood of post-election violence should the vote go forward.
“There is no indication that the election will hold,” he said, adding that “If the INEC goes ahead with the conduct of the elections there are fears that the exercise may be sabotaged by anti-democratic forces.

“If the election holds the results may be rejected leading to a post-election violence which may threaten the corporate existence of the nation.

“In the circumstance, an interim government may be established and be saddled with the task of preparing the country for another political transition. In the alternative, a coup d’etat that may be staged by the top echelon of the armed forces under the pretext of restoring law and order and fighting the menace of insurgency.

“The military wing of the ruling parties succeeded in Mali and Burkina Faso. But having divided the country along ethnic and religious lines, the masterminds of the political crisis are not likely to profit from the perfidy,” he said.

He therefore, asked Nigerians to prepare “for a long drawn out battle for the liberation of the country from political and economic predators”.

Falana commended the renewed onslaught against the deadly terror group, Boko Haram, in the North-East region of Nigeria by both the Federal Government and the Nigerian military.

He, however, asked the military to discontinue the court martial of several solders who had earlier complained about lack of sophisticated weapons to face the insurgents.
He said the government’s admittance that it purchased new equipment for the fight to succeed, meant that the soldiers were justified in the earlier protest.

He also asked the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the Ambassador Usman Gilmatiri presidential panel on insurgency in the north east region and embark on a special programme to address the problems of child education and youth unemployment in the region.

While commenting on the state of the nation’s economy, Falana said the bulk of the intervention funds created by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration was for the rich.

According to him, the funds including- Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (N69billion); Commercial Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (N200billion); the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (N200billion); Small and Medium Enterprises Credit Guarantee Scheme (N200billion); the SMEs Restructuring and Refinancing Scheme (N200billion) and Power and Airlines Intervention Fund (N300billion) are yet to have effect on the economy.

“Sequel to the crash in the price of crude oil the Federal Government announced that austerity measures would be imposed on the hapless Nigerian people. Because of the gross mismanagement of the economy by the government and its allies, workers are owed salaries for months.

“After the elections, the people are going to be made to bear the brunt of the looting of the treasury and costs of running the government.

“But in spite of the grinding poverty in the land Nigerian legislators are said to be the highest paid in the world. The country’s public officers equally receive the highest estacodes in the world. With over 10 aircraft Nigeria has the largest presidential fleet among the developing nations in the world.”

Falana also accused the Central Bank of Nigeria of “dollarization of the economy” adding that in a bid to dollarize the economy and destroy the Nigerian economy the CBN supplies millions of dollars to the foreign exchange market on a weekly basis.

“Although Nigeria has become the largest importer of the United States dollars in the world, neither the International Monetary Fund (IMF) nor the World Bank has ever questioned the reckless devaluation of the economy.

“Even, the National Assembly which is debating the 2015 Appropriation Bill has not deemed it to consider the deleterious effects of the increasing devaluation of the national currency on the implementation of the Budget,” he said.

Falana accused the media of diverting attention from Nigeria’s problem of youth unemployment, infrastructural decay, insecurity, corruption, currency devaluation to giving undue prominence to the campaign of calumny and character assassination embarked upon by some politicians.

“The media have thrown caution to the winds by colluding with certain politicians to divert attention from the crises of youth unemployment, infrastructural decay, insecurity, corruption, currency devaluation etc.

“Thus, by giving undue prominence to the campaign of calumny and character assassination embarked upon by some politicians, the media have denied the Nigerian people the opportunity to make informed decisions on the candidates of their choice,” Falana said.

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