Nigeria, Liberian govt to sign MoU on agricultural development

Nigeria and the Federal Republic of Liberia will sign an MoU to share knowledge and transfer technology in the area of agricultural development.

Mr Patrick Tarnue Worsie, the Assistant Minister for Planning and Development in Liberia, said this during a visit by a Liberian delegation to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) in Lagos on Wednesday.

Worsie said that the MoU was to be signed by FIIRO and Liberian government, specifically on several agricultural value chains.

“We, the Liberian people want to strengthen collaboration with the Nigerian government in the area of knowledge sharing and power development.

“We have a five year agricultural transformation agenda and what we have been doing in the last five months is to see how we can build capacity of our people.

“We are doing this with support from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“Our visit, we believe will help shape the ongoing agenda in our country. This is what has made our visit to Nigeria pertinent,’’ he said.

The minister said that the government was in the process of procuring 15 flash dryers from FIIRO to Liberia.

He added that the delegation would be in Nigeria for a few days to exchange knowledge on agriculture, adding that a previous delegation had come to Nigeria earlier for knowledge on the rice value chain.

The Director General of FIIRO, Prof. Gloria Elemo said that no other organisation had worked on cassava as much as FIIRO had done.

She said that Nigeria could save as much as 3.5 billion dollars (N123 billion) by just including high quality cassava flour in its bread.

She added that 300,000 jobs could also be created on the cassava value chain.

“Nigeria is the leading producer of cassava in the world so it is our area of comparative advantage.

“So far, we have discovered over 25 products from cassava alone and we are still discovering more.

“Some of the cassava products are garri, cassava tapioca, cassava chips, cassava macaroni, high quality cassava starch, cassava adhesives, cassava ethanol and fufu.

“It is also used for growing mushroom,’’ she said.

The FIIRO director-general said that over 500,000 micro, small and medium scale enterprises were affiliated with the institute.

She added that the institute also transferred no less than 25 of its technology to some medium and small scale enterprises.

“Nigeria is regarded as a big brother in Africa, and this is a way we can impact our brothers and sisters in Africa positively.

“The Liberian delegation will be signing an MoU with us, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and the Liberian government.’’

Elemo said that FIIRO had successfully continued to carry out research and development activities and transferred developed technologies to organisations and individuals, especially the food sector of the economy.