……Set to Create 150,000 Jobs in Agribusiness through the Tripartite Public-Private Sector Agreement
The Nasarawa State government is partnering the private sector players in the agribusiness industry to generate over sixty milling US dollars for direct investment into Agric production, aggregation and processing of essential commodities in the state.
The agreement was signed with Silvex International, a leading commodity trading firm in Nigeria to run the Nassarawa Agro-Commodity Company as privately driven agency with the Vertmance group as the third partner.
Under this agreement, the state will control twenty per cent (25%) of the shares of the company while Silvex International owns the sixty per cent (65%) of the share with Vertmance Group having the remaining 10% share as a co-partner.
The partnership is expected to create at least one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) direct jobs to the teaming youth, men women in Nassarawa state across various layers of agricultural value chains which include crop production aggregation, processing, packaging and distribution of finished food products.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, the Nassarawa State Governor Engr. Abdullahi Sule re-iterated his administration’s efforts for wealth creation in the Agricultural sector and the commitment of his government to creating investor-friendly business environment.
He then assured the partners of the state’s commitment to fulfilling all the terms of agreement contained in the partnership.
The MD/CEO of Nassarawa State Development Agency, Alh Ibrahim Abdullahi also reiterated the States commitment to the the project.
Silvex International Limited as the lead partner will drive the investment and management of the company with the support and participation of Vertmance Group.
The company is set to meet the expected result of operating a standard commodity trading firm that can compete with its peers globally and actualize the potentials of Nassarawa State as Agribusiness hub of Nigeria.
According to Alh Abubakar Karfi, the Managing Director and Chief Executive, Silvex International, the Nassarawa State government has commited to providing ten thousand hectares of farmland to support the initial take-off of the Agro-Commodity Company.
“The partnership will target and promote key crops such as sesame, groundnut, rice, soybean and ginger. We will work with our financial partners to attract over sixty million US dollars within the shorted possible time to ensure that we make this agreement fully operational” added Abubakar Karfi.
