Stakeholders in Anambra State have urged the Federal Government to complete the 25,000-tonne silo complex located in Igbariam, among others still under construction in various parts of the country.
A survey by the News Agency of Nigeria revealed that the agrarian Igbariam community in Anambra East Local Government Area, hosts the largest farm settlement in the South-East zone.
NAN observed that 10 gigantic silo cones of 2,500-tonne each, had been erected while the necessary fittings inside the silos had yet to be fitted.
However, other structures meant for support services for the silo complex had reached 70 per cent completion.
Mr Vincent Umeh, the site foreman for Mecca Nigeria Ltd, the company handling the project, said that the project had been under construction for over two years because it was being executed in phases.
Umeh attributed the delay in the completion of the project to paucity of funds.
He said, “As you can see, about 70 per cent of the work had been done on all the structures as well as the 25,000-tonne capacity silos; I believe the work would be completed soon.
“We are always on ground to continue but you know the issue of funding by phases of work done is affecting the straight completion of the project.
“It is primarily meant for grain storage as the temperature of the silos would be artificially modulated to preserve grains.”
NAN reports that the Anambra State Government had recently constructed a road linking the Onitsha-Enugu Road, the silo complex and the farm settlement area in the community.
Umeh urged the government agency supervising the project to push for its completion due to its socio-economic and agricultural benefits to the people of the area and Nigerians in general.
Similarly in Kano,a silo under construction in Gaya Local Government area of Kano State, had yet to be completed,an official said.
Acting Federal Director in the state, Alhaji Adamu Muhammed, said “The Federal Government has only one silo in Kano State, which is yet to be completed.”
He said when completed, the silo, located behind the local government Secretariat, would store 25,000 tonnes of grains.
He said that the ministry had commenced the training of farmers on post-harvest preservation of produce.
According to him, the training is aimed at refreshing the minds of farmers on the importance of local silos, with a view to making the best use of it.
He said, “For now, there is no measure in place to prevent post-harvest losses except the normal traditional way of storing farm produce in most parts of the north, especially in rural areas.
“Local silos are still being used for storing large quantities of farm produce, especially in the rural areas.”
Meanwhile, in Katsina, the Federal Director of Agriculture in the state, Dr Abdu Aminu, has advised farmers to package grains for storage inside air tight sacks, to prevent insect infestation.
Aminu said that grains being stored for a long time should not be stored in sacks that allowed air passage.
He said that the ministry would continue to enlighten farmers on modern storage methods because poor food storage was one of the greatest challenges of agriculture in Nigeria.
The director noted that the 250,000-tonne capacity silo located in Dutsin-ma local government area of the state was not yet functional.
Aminu added that the silo was for the storage of grains such as maize, guinea corn and millet.
He said the government purchased grains from farmers during glut to provide a Guaranteed Minimum Price and prevent post-harvest losses.
In Lokoja, NAN learnt that construction work on the 25,000-tonne silo had been completed.
Consultant to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the project, Mr Isaac Oguwuche, told NAN that completion of the project was delayed due to paucity of funds.
He, however, said the challenge had been overcome.
Ogwuche said that the silo was designed for the storage of grains only.
In Ilorin, the Silos Manager, Kwara Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Atofarati Usman, also said the 25-tonne facility was functional.
Usman said it was accessible to farmers for the storage of grains such as like maize, soya bean, sorghum, millet, among other produce.
SABMiller’s Hero Taps Into Biafra Nostalgia in Nigeria
At the Estate Sports Club in the southeastern Nigerian city of Onitsha, men troop up to the open-air bar and order a bottle of “Oh Mpa,” the local name for SABMiller Plc’s Hero beer.
Oh Mpa means “Oh Father” in Igbo, the language of the area, and is widely regarded as referring to the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who led a failed attempt to secede from Nigeria in the 1960s and set up an independent nation of Biafra that sparked a 30-month civil war. With its Hero bottles bearing the rising sun that appeared on the Biafran flag, SABMiller is tapping into the area’s nationalism.
“While Ojukwu was alive, he was addressed as the hero of the Igbo race,” Okwudili Otti, a 54-year-old machine-parts importer, said as he sipped a Hero Lager in a group of middle-aged men sitting on plastic chairs and watching a soccer match on wall-mounted television screens. “He was given that respect.”
Ojukwu died in November 2011 at the age of 78, and memories of him and the stillborn Biafra republic remain strong among the Igbo, one the three biggest ethnic groups in Nigeria numbering more than 40 million.
It’s not simply nostalgia that SABMiller is appealing to today, said Emeka Uzoatu, a 51-year-old seller of agricultural tools and chainsaws and writer in Onitsha, a bustling market town on the eastern bank of the Niger River.
Source: SABMiller Plc via Bloomberg A SABMiller employee is seen working on the Hero lager bottling production line in Nigeria. “It’s not really the older people who drink Hero, it’s the younger ones,” he said at his office on Port Harcourt Road. “They didn’t experience Biafra and they like to hear about it.”
‘Local Feel’
While London-based SABMiller says the presentation of Hero beer carries no political motivation, it’s aiming to create a “local feel” for its beverage.
“Hero was developed as a result of deep local consumer insight and positive associations with the Igbo tribe,” the company said in a March 13 e-mailed response to questions. “There is no historic or political motivation behind the brand and it is in no way designed to represent a political view.”
The civil war broke out in May 1967 following a coup the previous year led by mainly Igbo junior officers against a government dominated by northern Muslims. The mutineers murdered Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and northern Premier Ahmadu Bello. That prompted a revenge coup six months later and the massacre of tens of thousands of ethnic Igbos across northern Nigeria.
Military Governor
Ojukwu, then military governor of the region, declared the Republic of Biafra independent in May 1967, taking along the country’s nascent crude production in the Niger River delta. A 30-month civil war ensued as the federal government fought to bring Biafra and the oil fields back into the fold with the backing of U.K. and the former Soviet Union. Nigeria is currently Africa’s biggest oil producer, pumping 2.1 million barrels per day in March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
By its end in 1970, more than 1 million people had died in the violence and famine. In its aftermath, the national government was dominated by mainly northern military dictators for all but four years until the return of civilian rule in 1999. While the current leader, Goodluck Jonathan, hails from the southeast, he’s an ethnic Ijaw. Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, was Nigeria’s first president when the office was largely ceremonial.
Ojukwu Statue
The dream of nationhood for the Igbos has been commemorated in books such as Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and was made into a film starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The war has also featured in the writings of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark.
A giant statue of Ojukwu in military uniform with a rifle slung over his shoulder stands at the driveway leading to SABMiller’s brewery in Onitsha, the Anambra state’s biggest city with more than one million people.
The statue was erected by former Anambra state governor Peter Obi, who’s a member of the political party Ojukwu set up in 2003, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, or APGA. Onitsha is also a stronghold of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, which has been campaigning for peaceful secession of the East since 1999.
In response to robust demand for Hero Lager and other drinks, SABMiller plans to invest $110 million to triple its output capacity at the 18-month-old Onitsha brewery to 2.1 million hectoliters a year, the company said in a statement on Jan. 23.
Populous Nation
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with about 170 million people, is the continent’s second-largest beer market after South Africa, growing at an annual volume of 6 percent, according to SABMiller.
The company, which has brewing or beverage interests in 32 African countries, entered the Nigerian market in 2009 with the purchase of controlling interests in Pabod Breweries, based in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt. It later bought International Breweries Plc, which is based in the southwestern town of Ilesh.
SABMiller is competing in Africa’s top oil producer with rivals including Diageo Plc (DGE), which has sold more Guinness in Nigeria than in the beer’s native Ireland since 2007, and Heineken NV (HEIA), which controls Nigeria Breweries Plc (NB), the country’s biggest brewer.
Biggest Brewers
While the two biggest brewers in Nigeria, Heineken BV’s unit Nigerian Breweries Plc and Diageo Plc’s Guinness Nigeria Plc, have experienced slower growth because of higher fuel prices and depressed consumer income since 2012, SABMiller is pushing lower-cost products, according to industry analysts. Hero is as much as 40 percent cheaper than rival lagers.
“SABMiller’s approach of going down the price ladder widened their revenue base given the subdued state of consumer incomes over the last two years,” said Adewale Okunriboye, an analyst covering the industry at Lagos-based Assets Resource Management Ltd.
In Onitsha, Nigerian Breweries last year bought Life Breweries Ltd., and is pushing the Life beer brand to compete with Hero.
“Regional tastes, loyalties and traditions may inspire the growth of regional brands which the big brewers will eventually have to embrace to remain competitive,” Efemena Esalomi, analyst at Lagos-based Vetiva Capital Management Ltd.
Otti, dressed in a polo shirt and shorts, appeared to agree with that analysis.
“We needed a beer brand that we could trust, that we could call our own,” Otti said as he raised his glass to his lips for a gulp. “This is ours; ours is ours!”
Nnewi and Onitsha will look 15x better if they were given a face lift (road markings, traffic lights and signs, etc), designated side-walks, and so forth.
I can see Nnewi looking like Kigali, Rwanda, if the governor tries to beautify the town.
Nnewi and Onitsha will look 15x better if they were given a face lift (road markings, traffic lights and signs, etc), designated side-walks, and so forth.
I can see Nnewi looking like Kigali, Rwanda, if the governor tries to beautify the town.
You are not far from the truth just Nnewi has no more Space for such beautification...everywhere is occupied and turned to market. The roads are to narrow for pedestrian work etc, all this is because The town have never felt any government presence except when they wanted to campaign for election and when they want to come and collect their yearly dues. Nnewi don't even know that government exist because everybody is EXTREMELY busy for his/her businesses. Let us use this thread to show the beauty of all towns in Anambra. Thanks.
op, am posting from a hospital bed. i was hit by a commercial bicycle why trying to drive my own bicycle. Do u think this would have happened if am in other cities like ph, lagos, abuja, kano, owerri and so on which have a good town planning and good means of transportation? Anambra economy is good but the living standard there is compared to hell
[size=14pt]Nnewi roads need to be dualized, government need to open more satelite towns around Nnewi so that the city can expand, the place need roads abeg, its very unfortunate that a place that is home to Anambra manufacturing sector is lacking in basic animinties especially good and expansive road network.That type Habour Industrial Road is what Nnewi need not all this footpaths the government is applying bitumen.
That road that lead from Nnewi to Okija need serious job, expansion and dualization of that major road is needed, Obiano need to do that as soon as possible, the road is the busiest in Nnewi yet it look like a footpath, even Onitsha road Nnewi need urgent and serious work
i love Nnewi, one of the busiest places in Nigeria, everybody in Nnewi has a business, very robust and competitive.
the poorest family in Nnewi must have atleast motorcyle, those guys are workaholics [/size]
achi4u: You are not far from the truth just Nnewi has no more Space for such beautification...everywhere is occupied and turned to market. The roads are to narrow for pedestrian work etc, all this is because The town have never felt any government presence except when they wanted to campaign for election and when they want to come and collect their yearly dues. Nnewi don't even know that government exist because everybody is EXTREMELY busy for his/her businesses. Let us use this thread to show the beauty of all towns in Anambra. Thanks.
[size=13pt]it can be redeemed, if someone like Fashola or Chime or Akpabio were to be the governor of Anambra State they will work on those places and the place will look clean and decent.
Lets wait and see whether Obiano is in their League shaa, but i pray he surpass them[/size]
achi4u: You are not far from the truth just Nnewi has no more Space for such beautification...everywhere is occupied and turned to market. The roads are to narrow for pedestrian work etc, all this is because The town have never felt any government presence except when they wanted to campaign for election and when they want to come and collect their yearly dues. Nnewi don't even know that government exist because everybody is EXTREMELY busy for his/her businesses. Let us use this thread to show the beauty of all towns in Anambra. Thanks.
