Dr Kandeh Yumkella,    Director-General,  UN  Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), last week advised Nigeria to add value to cassava production to enhance  industrial development.  

He made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Ms Josephine Tapgun, during his three days official visit to Nigeria.

The visits was a follow-up to the Africa Agri-Business and Agro-industries Conference held in Abuja in March. 

Yumkella said Nigeria, being one of the largest producers of cassava in the world, consumes more than 90 per cent of it raw, rather than adding value to it. 

“Nigeria was the highest producer of cassava in the world 10 year ago and even now, is still one of the largest producers, but more than 90 per cent of it is eaten raw,’’ he said. 

Yumkella said Nigeria should emulate countries, such as Malaysia  that produces large quantity of cassava, and manufactured products such as gum arabic, flour and ethanol for energy. 

He noted that Nigeria was richly blessed in other agricultural products, such as groundnut, cocoa, coffee and meat products, which should be developed for industrialisation. 

The UNIDO boss said that in the next 30 years, Nigeria’s population would increase to 300 million, and urged government to do everything to develop cassava to enable it to feed the people. 

“Nigeria should advantage of  the opportunities  God  has given it to feed its population,’’ he said. 

Yumkella also called for the diversification of the country’s economy beyond oil and gas, while adding value to petroleum products on the downstream. 

“Nigeria can be industrialised because it has the resources both financial and human,” he said. 

Responding, Tapgun noted that energy was key, if the country must be industrialised.  

She said government was doing everything possible to ensure that the challenge of power was effectively addressed, among other challenges.

The minister said the Council of Commerce and Industry had been given the mandate by government to ensure that Vision 20:2020 was workable for industrial development. 

She also urged UNIDO to continue to support the ministry, both technically and financially, to ensure that its programmes for industrial development were successful. 

Reports say  that Yumkella, who inspected the ICT Centre, established by UNIDO in the ministry, gave certificates of completion on the use of computer and internet to the personnel who were trained in computer appreciation.