Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Enugu State Government says it has set a target of over ₦100 billion for livestock production and processing.
Governor Peter Mbah stated this when he received a delegation from the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) led by the National Project Coordinator, Sanusi Abubakar, who were in Enugu for the flag-off of the first Regional Enugu Model Veterinary Hospital in Enugu.
Mbah said this would boost the economy, scale up the capacity of farmers in animal husbandry, and strengthen value chain across the spectrum of agricultural sector in the state.
He said he was excited that the veterinary hospital was coming at a time the state was focused on scaling up meat and dairy production to serve the state and beyond.
The governor said that the recent Enugu State Ranch Management Agency Law was conceived to unlock economic opportunities for the state, create employment opportunities in the livestock space and contribute to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product from $4.4 billion to $30 billion.
“We saw that we needed to start putting in a robust policy or a legal framework that can support these policies.
“We are aware that Enugu has a market size of over ₦100 billion, and we are quite ambitious in the growth projection of our GDP,” he said.
Mbah underscored the frameworks that the administration had put in place to unlock the economic potential in the sector, adding that the state had enough capacity to produce enough “meat and dairy products for export, which would require skills in processing and packaging.”
He called on investors to seize the opportunities in the new ranch law, the veterinary hospital and the robust partnership between the state and the L-PRES to invest in the state, assuring sustained security of lives, property and investments.
Speaking the L-PRES coordinator, informed the governor that they were in the state to inspect the site and flag off of the construction of the hospital.
He said that on completion the hospital would carry out disease surveillance, maintain a healthy animal husbandry, conduct disease eradication services as well as vaccination of animals.
