PZ Wilmar and the Nigeria Institute of Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to boost Palm Oil production through research and human capacity building.
The event, which took place in Abuja, was witnessed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh.
Mr Kola Jamodu, Chairman, PZ Wilmar, who signed on behalf of the company, said that the essence of the MoU was to promote research into how Nigeria could regain its lost position in Palm oil production.
jamodu said that PZ Wilmar had three locations covering 30, 000 hectares of land and the first set of the company’s fruits has started coming out.
According to him, the essence of the whole exercise was to boost production and promote research activities.
“We thought to share our knowledge with NIFOT to translate it into other farmers to provide employment opportunity to thousands or millions of unemployed youths across the country.
Dr Omorefe Asemota, Executive Director, NIFOR, said that this was a milestone for the country and the palm oil industry in the country, because PZ was a major stakeholders in the development of agricultural sector.
“We need investors and strong research because that is where PZ input comes in, in term of technology input and between this two, you need synergy.
“It is important for research to fill the impulse of the industry and it is also important for the industry to partner directly with the research institutions for quality output.
“We are very please that PZ and NIFOR had long discussion and had been able to reach this understanding today. We are looking forward to a very bright future.
He added that the MoU signed should provide a platform that the outcome of the institute’s research are translated and utilised.
“We expect this relationship to transform into higher yields, productivity, in the medium term benefit to many people being involved in the industry and to boost the nation’s economy.
“By this gesture, Nigeria can restore its lost momentum so that our position can be reaffirmed again in the industry.
“A great part of what we have done today can transform into human capacity development. You don’t quantify it in naira or dollar in terms of quality,” he said.
On his part, Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh said that the ministry was ready to make its contribution in all areas for the success of the project.
“We are very proud of you. We look forward to seeing ourselves not just achieving self sufficiency in Palm oil production but meeting the demand of the rest of the world soon.
“We were there before, we weren’t serious and lost our position but the potential has not disappeared.
“We are always here to support in any way we can. We will come on a visit in early part of October.
Let me make one request; When you start processing, you can find out the possibility of converting palm oil Shell into activated carbon. You may find the revenue there quite useful.
“It’s a product we import now and what we import is not of the best quality,” Ogbeh added.