Multi-million naira grain milling machines rot away
Hussein Yahaya
The multi-million naira grain milling machines bought by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development between 2012 and 2014 have since been abandoned and rotting away, Daily Trust’s investigations have revealed.
They were intended to be distributed to the small scale farmers and farmers’ cooperatives across the six geo-political zones.
Daily Trust reports that the machines are presently packed under a makeshift shed at the premises of the grains silos in Kwali in the Federal Capital Territory after years of exposure to rain and sun.
One of the machines, the source added, had been moved to Borno State but also abandoned on arrival.
The machines were said to have been bought from a European company, Compact Milling System by a former agric minister and current President of the African Development Bank (ADB), Mr. Akinwumi Adesina.
Daily Trust learnt that the ministry bought the machines at about five million Euro, amounting to about N2 billion and they were fully delivered in 2014.
Sources familiar with the machines said they can be used to grind millet, sorghum, wheat and corn and can also blend cassava flours.
Sources in the ministry said the machines were abandoned due to politics and indecision.
“The machines were abandoned in the grass under rain and sun for close to three years before they were moved to a makeshift shed constructed for them within the premises of the grain silos in Kwali,’’ the source added.
One of the sources said the attention of the current Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, had been drawn to the deplorable condition of the machines and that he had instituted a panel of enquiry to investigate why the machines were abandoned.
The source, who preferred not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue, said the panel submitted its report with a recommendation that the machines be put in proper shape and distributed to the North-West, North-East, NorthCentral and other zones, where they can be used to help the feeding plight of the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs).
He said since then, the report has not been acted upon and the machines are rotting away, where they are packed.
An agric economist, Mr. Adebayo Ajao, was of the opinion that if the machines had been distributed since then, the beneficiaries would have been able to add value to their produce as they will no longer rely on the millers, some of who might short change them.
He stressed that there would have been increased economic activities in the areas the machines would have been installed.
When contacted, the Special Adviser to the Agric minister on media, Dr Oyeleye Olukayode, directed our reporter to the ministry’s Director of General Services, who seemed not to be aware of the situation when Daily Trust put a call across to him.
The director who, however, thanked the reporter for calling the ministry’s attention to the machines, promised to find out the details immediately.