The land border closure with Nigeria’s neighbouring countries has saved the nation’s poultry industry about N50 billion since it began in October.
Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), Prof. Eustace Iyayi, stated this in Abuja at a media briefing with the theme: Nigeria Border Closure: Impact on the Livestock Sub-sector, Food Security and Employment Generation.
Iyayi noted that the multiplier effect of the border closure had reflected in the upsurge of the operations along the value chain with regard to supply of inputs, storage facilities, transportation/logistics and value addition.
The NIAS chief explained that given Nigeria’s huge 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.
“This 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 Nation)
