The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) and the FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc, have entered into a partnership for increase in local content in dairy production in the country.
At a one-day sensitization workshop on dairy development project,held in Bayero University Kano (BUK) for the north eastern part of the country, the director-general of NOTAP, Dr. DanAzumi Ibrahim, said the partnership was necessitated by the need to align with government’s directive on local content development.
Ibrahim said the dairy project was introduced as a result of collaboration between the agency and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc on local value addition to milk produced in the country and ensuring availability of milk for our teeming population.
He said Nigerians have a large number of cows roaming about but produce little quantity of milk whereas some developed countries such as Netherlands and Vietnam with high technology on dairy project have a small number of cows but produce large quantity of milk.
Represented by the agency’s director, consultancy services department, Dr. Adamu Tandama, Ibrahim further stated that FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc, has been operating in Nigeria for over six decades, yet the technology responsible for quality and high milk yield still resides in their parent company.
The NOTAP boss further stated that in order to ensure technology transfer in dairy industry, the agency in 2013 opened discussion with FrieslandCampina Wamco to establish mini milk collection centers in Ibadan, Oyo State, adding the company built a settlement for the Fulani herders, ranched their cows and introduced them to the global best practices in growing cows and milking processes which had turned to a lucrative business.
He said the company had built a very successful global dairy programme and that Nigeria had the potential to do well in dairy development if well managed, pointing out that the partnership had ensured that in every cup of milk you take in Nigeria today, there is two per cent local content with the intention of gradual increase.
In his remarks, a representative of FrieslandCompina Wamco Plc, Dr. Akinade Samson in a virtual presentation of a paper titled ‘Opportunities for entrepreneurs in dairy value chain’ said there are huge economic benefits in diary business as entrepreneurs could make money through sale of cow milk for production of Peak milk, yoghurts, cow cheese, leather, and meat.
He said the company had empowered over 20,000 farmers in the country through technology transfer on global trends in dairy production, adding FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc had established functional milk collection centers in Oyo State where farmers and their cows are kept in a cluster and the cows are fed adequately to produce enough milk.
He added that Nigeria has a large number of cows but they are not hybrid with high milk production, hence the assistance offered to Nigerian farmers on artificial insemination.
Adebayo further informed the gathering that although FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc buys over 40,000 liters of raw milk from Nigerian dairy farmers at the collection centers daily, its target was 100,000 liters of milk daily.
He disclosed that the company had started building more collection centers across the country especially in states with proximity to the production center.
A statement signed by Raymond Ogbu for the agency’s head of public relations and protocol unit, said FrieslandCampina Wamco Plc is a multinational manufacturing company, affiliated to the Royal Friesland Campina of the Netherlands, the largest dairy cooperative in the world with 19006 cooperative farmers.
