Nigerian Breweries Plc,
Nigeria’s leading brewing company, Psaltry International Company Ltd, a Nigerian cassava processing company and the
International Fertilizer Development Centre, IFDC, through
its Towards Sustainable Clusters in Agribusiness through Learning in
Entrepreneurship project (2SCALE), have signed a
Partnership Agreement to optimize the cassava value chain in Nigeria and improve agribusiness for Nigerian smallholder farmers.
The Partnership Agreement
is a collaboration between the Parties to improve output of smallholder farmers and consequently support economic
development as well as promote inclusive growth in Africa. The partnership will
enhancefarmer productivity
and increase supply of high-quality cassava roots to Psaltry who will, in turn,
provide industrial quality cassava starch forNigerian
Breweries to extract maltose syrup for use in the brewing process.
This
Partnership Agreement succeeds the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the
partners in June 2014 which formed
part of the 2SCALE programme, a Dutch-funded initiative aimed at improving
rural livelihoods and food security in Africa. The partners agreed to support
small-scale farmers in the production of more and better cassava through
technical assistance, training and easier access to finance.This will
enable more smallholder farmers to participate in the market for processed
cassava byproducts requiredfor largeindustrial purposes.
Thepartnershipalso
enhancesNigerian Breweries socio-economic contribution via the agricultural
sector and supports the progressthe company is making, towards the achievement
of HEINEKEN’s ambition tosource 60% of its raw materials in Africa locally by
2020.
Nicolaas
Vervelde, Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries’ said “as an operating
company of HEINEKEN we have a long standing commitment to support local
economic development and promote inclusive growth by sourcing agricultural raw
materials from entrepreneurial local SME’s and utilizing it in our operations.
Through our partnership with Psaltry and IFDC, we are taking a big step towards
further realizing this ambition with cassava.”
From
June to December 2014, 2SCALE and Psaltry sensitized, mobilized and trained
over 500 direct farmers who supplied more than 20,000 tons of cassava roots to
Psaltry’s processing factory. Over 2000 direct farmers are expected to benefit
from the project within the next three years. The project has also worked to
ensure that marginalized groups of women and youths are targeted to ensure
equity amongst project beneficiaries.
Mrs. Oluyemisi Iranloye, Managing Director/CEO Psaltry said she is excited
about the partnership because it would fast track the growth of her young
company. “It is a huge opportunity for Psaltry to buy more raw materials from
the local farmers which would ultimately transform them into commercial
farmers. The partnership is also a big boost in our effort to improve the
quality of life of our host community.”
According
to the 2SCALE National Cluster Advisor, Mr. Thompson Ogunsanmi, "The partnership with Psaltry
and Nigerian Breweries is an opportunity to take cassava farmers in Nigeria to
another level based on 2SCALE's model of inclusive growth. It is a sustainable
model that enables smallholder farmers to benefit from agriculture as a
profitable business.”
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