In commemoration of the World Milk Day, the Director General of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry ACCI, Victoria Akai has called on stakeholders to put policies in place to improve the dairy sector.

The Director-General made the call at the opening of a two day event to mark the World Milk Day Mega Celebrations 2023 organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nigerian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Commercial Dairy Ranchers Association of Nigeria and Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Limited.

According to her, “it is expedient to note that with the backward integration of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the dairy sector was revitalised, attracting foreign investments and the creation of ranches across the country.”

“This celebration is a two day event and we can say this first day hosting about 20 public and private schools is already a success, the second day will be a conference for stakeholders in the dairy industry”

“The Chamber serves as a voice for businesses community and provides a platform for policy makers and organised private sector to interface and map out possible ways to impliment policies, hence, this event is paramount especially in this new dispensation.”

Sustainable Dairy

Director Animal Husbandry Services, Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Winnie Lai-Solarin said based on the theme of this years world milk day; sustainable dairy, good for the planet and good for you, the conference is focusing on sustainable financing for the dairy industry.

“As you all know, we import dairy products, so much so much foreign exchange going into tomorrow we’ll be talking to ourselves and Nigerian how do we cut down on these high import beef and how do we expand our dairy industry, indigenous the windows and create an enabling environment even for the international players so that we can have a robust industry.”

“Recently the Federal Executive Council approved the national dairy policy for instance, that gives us guidelines and direction of where we are going. That’s the first thing before that dairy policy we had the National Agricultural Technology and innovation policy that also gave the foundation for the dairy the policy now that we have a policy, we are now refocusing the dairy industry, before now we have focused our attention on collecting wholesome milk.” She explained.

Introduced in 2001 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the World Milk Day on 1 June every year celebrates dairy’s vital role in global food systems, qproviding economic, nutritional, and social benefits to a large proportion of the world’s population.

VON