How dairy industry can contribute N300b monthly to the economy, by NOTAP boss

IF the right technologies are applied, the diary industry has the prospect to fetch the nation over N300 billion monthly.Director General of the National Officer for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Umar Bindir, said in Abuja recently that the products from diary were largely consumed by the majority of the citizens of the country.Bindir,who spoke at a meeting with Registrar of the Librarians' Registration Council of Nigeria in Abuja, said that milk consumption is an index of quality of life and ifhalf of Nigerian population estimatedconsume a glass of milk could at only N100 per glass, it could generate N10 billion per day which in turn could create millions of jobs and translate into a N300 billion monthly revenue.The NOTAP chief stressed that though the country had immense business opportunities in the diary business, it had failed to deploy the required technology to generate employment, produce milk, create wealth and provide easy and quality nourishment for our economic and social wellbeing.He described Nigeria's high population of approximately 200 million as an asset that could provide endless opportunities for jobs and wealth creation but regretted that Nigerians are yet to take full advantage of the opportunities so presented.Bindir stated that beside dairy products, poultry and local food delicacies in Nigeria also provide opportunities for job creation, poverty eradication and prosperity if there were firm commitment and the political will to add value to the raw materials available in the country through deliberate indigenous technology acquisition and deployment.He said locally available natural resources require technology for value addition to be commercially viable.Decrying the continued exportation of just raw commodities of low value and importation of finished products into the country, he praised Registrar of LRCN for her initiative to partnerwith NOTAP for the promotion of science technology and innovation (STI), which he described as the master key and bedrock of development.Registrar of LRCN, Dr. Victoria Okojie, expressed her desire to work in collaboration with NOTAP to promote local technologies, as well as, local content in the country.She said LRCN observed that many research and development results were not documented in libraries to be accessible to Nigerians and stressed the need for adequate storage and dissemination of technology information.She said ' together, we can achieve much as partners to support the transformation agenda of the present government in realisation of the Vision 20:2020 targets.
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