The Bank of Industry (BoI) on Tuesday said 500 youths would be trained in tomato processing and packaging in Nigeria to reduce 1.5 billion dollar tomato paste import bill.
Mr Waheed Olagunju, the Acting Managing Director of BoI, said in Lagos that the training would reduce incidence of post-harvest losses, ensure all year availability of tomato and guarantee price stability.
According to him, the current production of fresh tomatoes in Nigeria per year is about 1.8 million tonnes, but over 50 per cent are lost to poor storage system, poor transportation and lack of processing facilities.
“Nigeria’s tomato paste market that is estimated at about 1.5 billion dollars by Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC) rely majorly on importation.
“This underscores the need for us to develop strategies for the development of tomato value chain in Nigeria.
“The production of tomatoes for industrial use is currently gaining momentum in Nigeria, especially for the manufacture of tomato juice, paste, ketchup, puree and powder.
“The nation has witnessed the bold steps that are being taken by some investors to establish new large tomato processing facilities, while processing plants that had hitherto closed down were recently taken over by new investors.
“However, these large processing plants usually require huge daily feedstock of tomatoes in order to attain sustainable operation levels.
“Various challenges relating to quantity and quality of tomatoes that are being experienced by the factories have contributed to their weak operations.
“This phenomenon has necessitated the need for the promotion of micro tomato processing clusters and small tomato processing facilities towards sustainable development of the tomato value chain in Nigeria,” he said.
Olagunju said that the pilot scheme of the training, to be done in partnership with Betamark Production Ltd., would hold in Lagos and Kano States.
According to him, the training will expose Nigerians to the knowledge of identified processing method for small scale businesses along the tomato value chain.
He said that due to the huge entries received by the bank,.
Olagunju said that the training sessions would be enhanced and replicated in other suitable locations across the country.
He said that beneficiaries of the training with bankable proposals would be financed by BoI to acquire equipment and working capital for their projects.
According to him, loan to each cluster or beneficiary will be administered at a single digit interest rate of nine per cent per annum with the tenor ranging between three to five years.
He said that the initiative had the potential to create more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the immediate future due to labour intensive nature of activities along the tomato value chain from primary production to processing, packaging and marketing.
Mr Duro Kuteyi, the Managing Director, Betamark Consulting, said the training would create awareness among Nigerians about tomato processing, preservation and dangers inherent in consuming imported tomato paste filled with chemicals.
According to the food technologist, the training will translate into job creation, empowerment, wealth creation, affordability and availability of produce year long and reduction in post-harvest losses of food in the country.
“We realise that a lot of tomatoes are harvested in the North and because of improper handling and hours spent transporting them to different parts of the country, the produce perish.
“First, we taught participants how they can use blenders in their kitchen for processing tomato paste and how to preserve it for a year.
“Last week at Kano, we trained 210 people and divided them into 15 cooperatives to enable them access finance for machinery from BoI for commercial purpose.
“The same will be replicated in Lagos among those that will be trained,” he said.
Kuteyi, a former Chairman, Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Lagos State Chapter, said the training which included fruit processing would revolutionise the nation’s food processing industry. (NAN)
AIO/AOM/TA