The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (Nahco aviance) has earmarked N5 billion for developing export processing centres at the Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano, and Enugu airports.
The group managing director of the firm, Mr Indranil Gupta, disclosed this at a press conference held at the company’s headquarters in Lagos at the weekend.
He said a pilot scheme of the facility which the company spent N1 billion on had already been built in Lagos.
He added that N4 billion would be spent to replicate the project in Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano, and Enugu airports when he starts seeing the dividends from the Lagos facility.
“Before I put money on the table, I have to know that something is coming. We have spent about N1 billion on the export processing centre. Unless I start seeing results coming out of this, I will not invest in other stations,” he said.
The GMD also said NAHCO “is export-focused” adding that the processing centre would also enhance standardisation of export processing system.
“The idea is that Nigerian products will be in one shop where they will be well sorted, arranged and packaged before being transported.
“We plan to put forward some ideas on improving exportation. I know that Nigeria can be the food basket of the continent if the producers and farmers are availed of the potentials of the continent. It is much more profitable to export than to import because it comes with foreign exchange,” he said.
Furthermore, Gupta said the company was planning to revive its business activities in Kano.
“We want to take Kano back to its original glory. We have a strong focus on Kano. With the export processing centres, we want to reach out to farmers and the middlemen who are supplying and buying the products,” he added.
Gupta further said the company was reaching out to a dairy farmer in Adamawa State whose exploits in export business he described “out of this world.”
“There is a young Nigerian who is doing dairy farming. He exports as far as the Middle East. His exporting processing capabilities are about 150000 litres per day of fresh milk. At the moment, he is using only 30 per cent of that capacity. He is making cheese out of it; he is pasteurising the milk and selling it and other milk products. He is exporting. He is making yoghourt of the brand name of Admilla. We are telling guys like him to come and let us do it.
“We are working with him to see whether he can supply the rest of the country. For example, a lot of the milk that you get in Nigeria is imported whereas, between Adamawa, Taraba and other neighbouring states, you have got close to about 20 million cows. Is this not sufficient to supply the whole of Nigeria? When we talk about economics, we are not mindful of these facts. What is our internal potential?”
Gupta said the cargo volume in Nigeria is 95 per cent import-dependent adding that one of the changes he had brought to Nahco “is that we are completely focused on export.”
“In export, you earn dollars; you earn foreign exchange. It is much more beneficial to us as a community, as a nation.”
