REGISTRAR and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), Professor Eustace Iyayi, has revealed how the land border closure with neighbouring countries has saved the poultry industry in Nigeria about N50 billion since its commencement in October.
Iyayi made the disclosure at a news conference in Abuja during a news conference with the theme, “Nigeria border closure: Impact on the livestock sub-sector, food security and employment generation.”
He disclosed that the multiplier effect of the border closure has also reflected on the upsurge in the operations along the value chain with regards tothe supply of inputs, storage facilities, transportation/logistics and value addition.
Iyayi disclosed said that given Nigeria’s huge total feed output of 5.3 million metric tonnes in 2016, 80 per cent of the output was attributable to the poultry industry.
“With an estimated 180 million poultry population and annual output in excess of 700,000 metric tonnes of eggs, that is about 450 million crates of eggs and 300,000 metric tonnes of meat, one can only imagine the several hundreds of thousands.
“This is perhaps, with millions of direct and indirect jobs created by the industry in its entire value chain, in conjunction with its related ancillaries.
“It is indeed an almost endless web of commercial activities.
“These ranges from hatcheries, day-old chicks distribution, broiler/layer farming, broiler processing, poultry meat and egg retail shops, crop processing, raw materials supply, feed mill operations, feed distribution, among others, ” he said.
The registrar emphasised that the huge impact could, however, grow exponentially and be translated to more concrete economic gains and accelerated growth of the nation’s poultry industry.
According to him, the growth could go beyond the current estimated annual rate of 3.3 per cent, by taking total control ofthe local market.
