ibironkeeniola 
The Niger State Government has said there is enough pasture in the Bobi Grazing Reserve to take in more private investments.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said this on Monday during a working visit to the grazing reserve located in the Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State.
Bello last year disclosed that the state government had drawn in a lot of private investors into the reserve including Chivita, Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria.
On the other hand, the governor had further said, collaborations were ongoing with developed countries that were advanced in livestock and dairy products such as Hungary, Brazil, Netherlands, India and Pakistan.
However, speaking to journalists on Monday after the latest visit, Bello noted that the reserve had excess pasture in relation to the number of cows currently available in it.
According to him, opening up the excess pasture to private investors within and outside Nigeria would serve as a source of income for the state.
He said, “We can start making money from the pasture here. We have too much pasture available now.
“The pasture we have now is able to feed 9,000 cows but in the grazing reserve we do not have up to 2000 cows yet.
“This means we have more than enough pasture and going forward in the scheme, we will be selling off the excess pasture to any part of the country and the world.”
The governor further called on private investors to invest in the grazing reserve, assuring them of the safety of their investments.
He stated that adequate measures had been put in place to ensure their security within the facility.
“We will do whatever it takes to secure this place. I am committed and determined to do whatever it takes to ensure that investments here are secured both on the government and private sector’s sides.
“In all, we are doing our best to protect and secure this entire area and we will get to it”, he said.
Revival of the Bobi Grazing Reserve
Afer decades of abandon, the Bobo Grazing Reserve received significant remodeling under the Federal Government’s National Livestock Transformation Plan.
This renewed attention helped to attract private investments into the reserve.
According to Daily Trust, the project is anchored on a 10-year development plan with a N13 billion funding from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Meanwhile, the CBN in 2019 had announced that it was partnership with the Niger State Government for a ranch at the reserve in order to ensure local production of milk.
The Special Adviser on Development Finance to the CBN Governor, Anthony Ifechukwu, had noted that the local production of milk had become necessary to create jobs.
Ifechukwu had pointed out that Nigeria was spending 1.5billion dollars a year on milk importation.
The special adviser had explained that, “What we are saying is that what we can produce in Nigeria we don’t have to import because by continuous importation we are not allowing our people to maximize their full potentials.
“For every litre of milk we import, you have 14 jobs created there and that means those jobs are lacking in Nigeria. Nigeria is spending about 1.5 billion dollars per annum on milk importation and we felt with the resources Nigeria has there should be a reversal.
“So we are partnering with the Niger state government to ensure the facility and the environment for this initiative to run is there.”
SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA