NCAN Seeks Ministry’s Assistance In Processing, Value-Addition

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Cashew farmers in the coun­try, under the aegis of National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), has said that it is in talk with the Ministry of Indus­try, Trade and Investment to urge Bank of Industry, (BOI) and Ni­gerian Export Import (NEXIM) bank to invest in processing and value addition of cashew.

Ojo Ajanaku, National Presi­dent of the Association during a telephone interview with our Correspondent said that it is im­portant to invest heavily in pro­cessing of cashew, as it is highly capital intensive.

He called for support for po­tential processors in the country as he said most of them are pro­cessing below capacity, and that the facilities have been moribund due to financial challenge.

“Let us invest in the potential processors we have here in Ni­geria or to resuscitate the ones that are moribund due to finan­cial issues. Those ones that are working, they are not working to full capacity, we need to see how they can be supported because processing is highly capital in­tensive.

“Cashew is a seasonal produce and they need to work through­out the year which means they need a lot of capital to stock what they will process throughout the year. So they need support from banks.

“If you are getting money from our commercial banks, there is no way you can compete with international market, the sup­port have to come from NEXIM bank, BOI or Bank of Agriculture (BOA); those are the banks that can help because the interest rate of the banks are still favourable, and you can compete with the in­ternational market unlike when you go to our commercial bank, you will not be able to sell at the same price the international market is selling. We are work­ing strongly to see how we can be assisted,” he said.

Read Original Report Here By Independent

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