A 10-year-old livestock development and implementation plan has been launched by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
At the beginning of a two-day meeting with stakeholders, the FCT Minister of State Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu unveiled the strategy.
According to her, the plan aims to facilitate and improve the provision of essential infrastructure and remove all social barriers to the full growth of the four grazing areas in the Federal Capital Territory.
The minister stated that the meeting’s outcomes are anticipated to give the FCT Administration a roadmap for developing a secure and successful livestock subsector, support efforts to achieve food and nutrition security, generate much-needed employment, and encourage further diversification of the economy away from the oil industry.
In the first quarter of 2022, according to information provided by Aliyu, the agriculture sector contributed about 22.36 percent of the country’s GDP, with the livestock subsector accounting for about seven percent of that total. Aliyu expressed regret that the sector’s growth potential has not yet been fully realized.
He claims that although this highlights the importance of each sector and sub-sector to economic growth, it has taken a while to increase livestock output to the desired level.
“Projections imply that as human population grows exponentially, especially in metropolitan areas like the FCT, demand for animal products like milk, meat, and poultry will increase without a corresponding increase in the livestock industry’s ability to supply needs.”
She thus pledged that the FCTA will create the right conditions for the operators to succeed.
Prior to this, the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Mr. Adesola Olusade, who was present in the person of the Director of Human Resource Management, Malam Mohammed Bashir, emphasized how this dynamic approach was in line with contemporary institutional governance, which places a strong emphasis on structured planning as a necessary condition for effective program implementation.
