'Why NIRSAL moves to halt importation of dates into Nigeria'

The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has said that Nigeria has the capacity to produce the quantity the country will require for consumption annually.

This was because Nigeria currently ranked the world tenth highest consumer of dates, however, imports 80 per cent of dates popularly called ‘dabino’ it consumes annually, while 20 per cent are produced locally.

But the NIRSAL Managing Director, Aliyu Abdulhameed, during the flag-off the National Date Palm Planting Campaign and Exhibition in Sokoto said the country could cover the 80 per cent shortfall.

He said, “With Nigeria being the 10th highest consumer of Dates and producing only 20 per cent of her consumption, there is a huge potential for the country to close in on the 80 per cent shortfall.”

The MD believes Nigeria could tap from the huge potential of over $1.6bn valued market globally adding that the commodity has the potential to reduce the country’s unemployment.

The campaign according to the NIRSAL boss would create awareness on the commercial viability of the Date Palm.

Abdulhameed who was represented by Ibrahim Abdullahi, who is his Technical Assistant hinted that Nigeria’s agriculture sector has the highest rate of absorption compared to other sectors of the economy.

The MD also expressed hopes of huge potential for food and job security in the country amidst rising inflation numbers.