The Federal Government has moved to validate a national action plan aimed at boosting local milk production and cutting Nigeria's annual $1.5 billion dairy import bill.
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a validation workshop on the National Action Plan for the Promotion of Local Milk Production in Nigeria.
The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
Maiha said reducing the import bill would require a practical and implementable action plan to build a modern, competitive and inclusive dairy sector. He said the era of holding conferences and workshops without tangible results in the dairy sector was over, and urged stakeholders to move beyond discussions to implementing policies that would increase local milk production.
He said the plan was anchored on the Nigeria Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy 2025 to 2035, the National Dairy Policy 2023 to 2028 and its implementation framework, as well as the Nigeria Livestock Master Plan and Livestock Sector Strategy 2026 to 2040.
The minister expressed concern that Nigeria lacked reliable data on daily milk production, functional dairy cooperatives, their links with processors and the challenges affecting milk collection and storage. He questioned how much had been done to reduce the $1.5 billion annual figure, noting that without data on how much milk is produced daily across the country, it was impossible to know whether imports were going up or coming down.
Maiha outlined three priorities for the plan, including directing investment to commercially viable dairy-producing areas based on feed and water availability, farmers' capacity, security, road access and demand from processors.
He identified existing private-sector initiatives, including FrieslandCampina WAMCO's farmer-centred programme, Nestle Nigeria's dairy development activities, and private farms operated by Arla, Integrated Dairies Ltd and L and Z Integrated Dairy Farms, as foundations for expanding the sector. He added that 21 states now had ministries of livestock, indicating readiness for coordinated action.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Chinyere Akunjobi, said Nigeria spent more than $1.5 billion annually on dairy imports in spite of its enormous livestock potential.
