Maize Farmers Move to Create One Million Jobs

Francis Sardauna in Katsina

The President of the Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), Dr. Bello Abubakar Annoor, announced plans by the association to create one million jobs through regional agricultural commodity exchange.

He disclosed this yesterday, during the flag-off of the 2023 wet season farming by the association under its Private Partnership Programme (PPP) in Katsina.

Annoor said: “We dedicated and determined to partner with various business associates and agreed to come up with this Private Partnership Programme (PPP) business model which we flagged off today (Monday).

“Our business model anchored on the PPP model entails, among other things, to ensure creation of one million jobs through the regional agricultural commodity exchange.”

He said MAAN in collaboration with other associations designed a sustainable private public sector business driving model to ensure food security, employment creation and provision of raw materials to industries.

He added that the association was committed to ensuring the full benefits of commodity exchange, warehousing, products processing and marketing were fully exploited to the benefit of Nigerians.

The MAAN president, however, reminded Nigerians that the maize production in the country had increased from eight million metric tons in 2015 to 20 million metric tons in 2020.

Annoor, averred that the association employed 360 youths as tractor operators, while its membership had risen from 120,000 million to five million members within five years.

In his remarks, the State Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, represented by his deputy, Hon. Faruq Lawal Jobe, described agriculture as the major way of employment creation and economic revitalisation.