The Nigerian Correctional Service, Zone G, Benin has begun the production of bread in commercial quantity for both its inmates and members of the public.
The NCoS bakery has been handed over to a concessionaire, First Global Hakitekt Bread Bakery Limited.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who handed over the bakery for effective management to the concessionaire, described the project as laudable.
Tunji-Ojo, represented by the Director of Special Duties in the Ministry, Comfort Kabirwa, commended the different Controllers in the zone, comprising Edo, Delta, Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States, for their buy-in into the project.
He underscored the importance of Public Private Partnerships, saying the recent decongestion of Correctional Centres in the country was not government-funded but facilitated through corporate social responsibility.
He said: “We have to think out of the box to achieve our mandate.
“The bakery is a laudable project because it will help build the skills of the inmates, give them a source of livelihood and make them employable after leaving the correctional centre.”
Tunji-Ojo further said that changing the name from prisons to correctional “was intentional not just for rebranding but to change the way prisoners were treated”, even after serving their terms.
Earlier, the Controller General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, said the bakery was the initiative of the NCoS and the concessionaire under a PPP arrangement.
Nababa said the project was also supported by the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.
He said: “It is a pilot initiative aimed at enhancing the performances of Federal Government projects.
“The First Global Hakitekt Bread Bakery Limited is expected to bring in expertise to allow for a win-win situation for both parties.”
Nababa, represented by the NCoS Zonal Controller, Zone G, Assistant Controller General Friday Ovie, said the initiative was in line with the mandate of the service, which included inmates rehabilitation via skill acquisition.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the bakery, Dare Eluyemi, said the project was not only to equip inmates with bakery skills, but create jobs in the bakery value chain.
Eluyemi said: “The bakery project has the capacity to produce bread for more than 32,000 inmates on a daily basis.
“It will help to reduce the government’s spending on the feeding of inmates in correctional centres and also be sold to the public for income generation.”
Also, the Edo State Controller of the NCoS, Philomena Emehinola, said the bakery initiative was a plus to the state, adding that it would put the state command in the limelight.
“We will make the project sustainable to feed our inmates as well as build their skills in the bakery,” Emehinola said.
She said that the inmates, who would undergo training in the bakery, would be paid some stipend as incentive under the earning scheme.
She, however, said their earnings would be handed over to them at the end of their jail terms.
The News Agency of Nigeria learnt that the pilot project would run for two years after which it would be replicated in other zones of the NCoS.
