Mixed reactions trail Silos concession

• It's not as transparent as expected -Olalere
• It will save us from the inevitable food crisis – Oekoja
• It will be the quick use of silos – Ogunaid

The federal government's decision on concession 20 Silos for private sector operators have met mixed feelings, as farmers and other stakeholders in this sector express their divided views on this issue.

Estimated Wednesday, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the assignment of 20 of its 33 silos, located almost evenly across geopolitical zones, at the cost of N6b over the next 10 years.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbe, who told reporters after the FEC meeting, said that bunkers built more than 10 years ago have a capacity of 1,360,000 tons of grain.

"In 2014, the government decided to privatize or cede some of these silos so that the private sector could help, use them for a fee to the federal government. This process was carried out by the World Bank, the government concession committee, NGOs, the private sector and the Ministry of Agriculture. It took a long time to achieve this, because the processes are very slow, we wanted absolute reporting. The federal government will retain six of the 33 silos, ”he said.

The guardian reliably collected that the silos were not in poor condition, despite the fact that they had been idle for a long time without being neglected after several billion naira had been spent on their installation.

Although this step is generally welcomed, as experts argue that it can save the country from the inevitable food crisis, they claim that this process was hidden in secret, as farmers were not moved together, hinting that they might have been proposed by government minions who are not practicing farmers or agribusinesses.

The executive chairman of ajogbe Holdings, Mr. Bosoye Olalere, operating hectares of rice plantations in Osun State, who approved this move, told The Guardian that the concession was justified because neither the federal government nor any government had the capacity to manage the bunkers.

He noted that, like any other activities that require a lot of control and commitment, if the silos are managed by the private sector, they will be responsible for their success or failure with their own resources, while the government controls them, which may not achieve the desired result, despite the fact that the government uses money that can pose a double threat.

The former chairman of the agricultural sector of the Chamber of Commerce of Lagos (LCCI), Prince Weil Oyekoja, who is the managing director / general director of Bama Farms, who also welcomed this move, said it was long overdue.

He noted that this step was taken because of pressure from interested parties on the government. “It is better to give silos to the private sector in order to save the country from the inevitable food crisis. Grains, such as corn, millet, sorghum and others, are imported due to a shortage of goods. Both people and animals compete for the consumption of these goods, which requires a deficit and high prices for products.

“Production below the volume of consumption in the country pushed prices, which led to a shortage of goods. The time has come when our government began to pursue a people-oriented policy that is now in place because we are moving to this step more than six years ago, during the last administration, to praise the Agricultural Transformation Program (ATA).

"The concession is good for our economy and allows us to make grain available at all times, and not the scarcity that we experience in the country all the time, and this will reduce the price of animal feed in the country."

To the manager of Crest Agro Products Limited, Lokoi, the State of Kogi, Mr. Dele Ogunlade, with a concession, it is likely that silos will be used because the government officials who managed it are not the best managers. “Like all government agencies, they introduce favoritism, they take bribes, and they are not willing to put in additional efforts, but if this is a concession, it will be used wisely, because the goal of the private sector will be to remain in business.”

However, Olaler has problems with the lack of transparency in the distribution of silos. “The concession lasts about three or four years ago. There were newspaper articles on it, and we actually indicated an interest in one or two silos, but we did not receive any confirmation of our expression of interest and there was no feedback from our statement. So it is definitely not as transparent as we expected. ”

His demand contradicted the position of the minister, who said: “Those who offered and demonstrated potential were singled out by Silos …”

Oyekoya, who also frowned in the process, said: "It is unfortunate that the farmers were not advised prior to the assignment, as the usual nature of the government. Silos have been ceded to their minions who do not practice farmers or agribusinesses. ”

According to Ogunlade, the whole process shows a lack of transparency, which lamented that farmers, like him and other interested parties, were not transferred. He said: “If the farmers get together, they will be able to take over the entire concession, but with the way they did it, it goes to the minister’s favorites because they are running the government these days.”