The Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, has said the administration aims to generate over N100bn from livestock production and processing.
This initiative, the governor stated on Monday, was expected to stimulate economic growth, enhance the capacity of farmers in animal husbandry, and fortify the value chain across the agricultural sector in the state.
He made the statement while receiving a delegation from the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project, led by National Project Coordinator, Sanusi Abubakar.
The L-PRES was in Enugu to launch the first Model Veterinary Hospital.
Mbah expressed his enthusiasm for the timely establishment of the veterinary hospital, given the state’s focus on expanding meat and dairy production to serve both local and external markets.
He said the recently enacted Enugu State Ranch Management Agency Law was designed to unlock economic opportunities, create employment in the livestock sector and contribute to the growth of the state’s Gross Domestic Product from $4.4bn to $30bn.
“We saw that we needed to start putting in a robust policy or a legal framework that can support these policies. We are aware that Enugu has a market size of over N100bn, and we are quite ambitious in the growth projection of our GDP,” he noted.
While underscoring all the frameworks that the administration had put in place to unlock the economic potential in the sector, the governor maintained that the state had enough capacity to produce enough meat and dairy products for export, which would require skills in processing and packaging.
He called on investors to seize the opportunities in the new ranch law, the veterinary hospital and the robust partnership between the state and the L-PRES to invest in the state.
He assured that the security of lives, property and investments would be sustained.
Speaking earlier, Abubakar told the governor that they visited to inspect the site and kick off the construction of the hospital.
According to him, the hospital would, among others, carry out disease surveillance, maintain healthy animal husbandry, conduct disease eradication services as well as vaccination of animals.