By H.E Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia

Deputy Governor, Jigawa State.

“Barely 2 weeks ago I paid an unscheduled visit to the Minister of State for Trade and investment Aisha Abubakar in her office in Abuja to discuss crucial issues relating to quality assurance in Agricultural export.”

Mexico banned Nigeria Hibiscus last year because of beetle infestation and jigawa the largest producer lost almost $40 Million as farmers were left with unsold stock.

I appealed to the Minister to approve the posting of trained produce inspectors with relevant fumigation experience while jigawa will provide local logistics so we can improve quality and conform to international export standards .

I also asked her to arrange Global GAPS training so we can take quality assurance to the farm level.

Today the Honourable Minister returned the honour and stormed Jigawa with 5 of her directors to tell us our request for both the produce inspection deployment and global GAPS training were approved. She has also approved a reduction in the cost of calibrating grain measures or mudu from N200 to N10

She was very glad to hear that Jigawa has almost completed the process of establishing an Agricultural export terminal with a Turkish free trade zone for processing produce for export using state of the art cleaning and processing equipment installed and operated by the importers resident engineers. Machines are installed, Engineers are on ground and regulatory requirements are being processed.

All produce leaving the terminal will be of the highest standard and will be branded with a jigawa logo. Payment will be FOB with part at the terminal and the balance after ship loading, reducing the exporters payment cycle to 10 days or less. NIRSAL will partner in financing farmers to produce selected crops for export at the terminal with guaranteed best pricing, and the venture has applied for an export terminal status from Nigeria customs so containers can be sealed in Jigawa and taken straight to shipping agents at the ports.