FIRRO Fabricates Stainless Steel Pepper Grinder

Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), has achieved a landmark breakthrough in its drive to enhance capability in the production of processingmachineries and equipment to enhance commercialisation of agricultural value chains, when it launched three products at the Technology and Innovation Expo held in Abuja recently.

The products include a Stainless Steel Pepper Grinder, Fruit Washer, Carbonator, De-humidifier, Groundnut Toaster and the FIIRO/NATE Rice De-stoner.

The Director General of FIRRO Dr. Mrs Gloria Elemo said the stainless steel pepper grinder is capable of grounding and producing pepper in commercial quantity without contaminating the product.

The machinery, she added, can be used in the market place and in food processing industry. Aside from pepper, it is also capable of milling corn and other flours.
Elemo said that the production of locally fabricated processing machineries and equipment will conserve foreign exchange and reduce importation of such machineries and equipment mainly from China and India.

She told THISDAY that the groundnut toaster was designed in a way that it can use gas, electricity and charcoal by urban and rural dwellers.

“The effect of recession has prompted people to look inward and realise the need for us to use our own technology for us to grow. It is alarming that 57 years after independence and with the resources at our disposal, we still don’t have the right classification,” Elemo said at the expo that also featured a National Fabricators Workshop.

About 50 indigenous fabricators under the umbrella of the Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Fabricators Association of Nigeria (AMEFAN) and the members of the Presidential Implementation Committee on Commercialization of Agricultural Value Chains to address critical issue of agro-processing bordering on local availability of processing machinery and equipment attended the workshop.

The committee was set up on June 9, 2016 by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the Special Session on Agriculture of the Economic Management Team to identify indigenous technical capability to produce processing machinery and equipment.

The Chairman Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, said he supported the need for government to make provision for an intervention fund for local manufacturers, saying it was the missing link in Nigeria’s drive towards economic recovery.