Food security: Mmobuosi Holdings, AFAN target 3,322 E-warehousing system 

In a bid to control the rising prices of food commodities in Nigeria, the Mmobuosi Holdings in partnership with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) is seeking to acquire at least 3 E-warehouses in each of the 774 local governments across the country.

Speaking while on inspection of Mmobuosi food processing factory in Onicha-Ugbo, Delta State recently, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Dozy Mmobuosi, said the E-warehousing system aims to reduce the trend whereby few individuals hoard food, cause scarcity and increase the prices.

He explained that beyond the E-warehousing system,  “we will be opening one rice mill in Niger, we own a farm, a three thousand hectares farm. We are in partnership with AFAN, we funded the rice season last year, not even the Central bank (CBN) did that, I am even surprised that the media didn’t even pick on that.

“For us, the partnership we have with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) is not a short term one, I am reassuring the president and his team that the partnership is a long term one.”

Mmobuosi further explained that the company and AFAN are going to be working with smallholder farmers altogether to get all the raw materials for the warehousing system.

“There are two parts that we will play, first of all, we have the production, secondly there is what we call the E-warehousing financing system which we are handling and it is part of  what is lacking here in the nation,” he stated.

Also speaking, the President of AFAN, Dr. Forouk Mudi, said, “I have been saying it, the lack of an E-warehousing system has allowed for some people to hoard food commodities through materials.”

He noted that most farmers are broke during harvest, “we don’t have anything, we have already spent all our money which makes us sell our products without recourse.

“The small farmer holder can sell at any price during harvest, and that is exactly what is killing them year in, year out.

“The E-warehousing project in partnership with Mmobuosi Holdings is what is going to enrich the farmers. Firstly, there is a warehouse in every local government, we have registered three warehouses in each local government of the federation.

“We have started with about eleven (11) states for now, they are Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa, Gombe, Anambra, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, and Niger”. 

Mudi stated further that if the farmers harvest, instead of these hoarders to buy all their food produce, there will be an alternative for the farmer to store his or her harvest while they get some funding to take care of their immediate needs.

He said the people who hoard food commodities and cause rising prices are “not in relationship with us. They only buy and the farmers have to sell because they have to cater for their immediate needs. The farmers have loans to pay, so it is necessary for them to sell. What we are going to do for them now is to store their commodity for them.

“In that terms, when we do, the raw material of the farmer becomes his collateral. We will now give them facilities up to 50 percent of what they have stored in our warehouse so that they can go and take care of their needs.

“When the farmer comes to sell, we will see how much the commodity is, and then the farmer has value for his products more than he would have had during the harvest and this will bring about control in food price regime” AFAN noted.

The E-warehousing system is expected to reduce sales of food products by farmers during harvest season thereby preventing artificial food scarcity which gives room for rising prices.