The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has announced that the federal government will reclaim idle silos across Nigeria due to massive post-harvest losses currently estimated at $10 billion annually.
This was disclosed in a statement via the Minister’s official Facebook page on Friday.
According to Kyari, a committee will be constituted to review contractual clauses and performance, and “any silos left idle will be reclaimed while defaulters of the contract face sanctions.”
He stressed that it is unfortunate that some concessionaires have abandoned their silo facilities, highlighting that going forward, strict compliance will be enforced.
FG’s Move to Revive Silo Concession Programme
According to the statement, the Minister on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) led by its Director General, Dr. Jobson Oseodian Ewalefoh, alongside the Commission’s Head of Legal, Director of Contract and Compliance, and other management staff.
- The meeting focused on reviewing the performance of Nigeria’s silo concession programme, which was earlier introduced to address the government’s inability to optimally utilise its silo complexes due to funding and operational constraints.
On his part, the ICRC DG, Dr. Ewalefoh, emphasised that only private companies with real operational needs for silos should retain them.
- He warned that “abandoned silos would be retrieved by the Federal Government,” adding that some concessionaires have failed to remit required returns to government coffers.
“A new committee will be established to review contractual clauses, assess performance, and set clear intervals for evaluation,” the statement partly reads.
- Senator Kyari highlighted the urgent need to revive silo storage facilities as a pathway to reducing Nigeria’s massive post-harvest losses, “currently estimated at $10 billion annually.”
“Storage facilities are essential to our food security drive, as they directly address wastage and ensure year-round availability of staple crops,” he added.
The Minister added that the Ministry, working with ICRC, will intensify oversight, enforce compliance, and ensure that only competent private operators manage silo facilities, in alignment with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR’s agricultural transformation agenda aimed at ensuring national food security.
Insight into Concession Programme
According to the statement, out of the 17 silo complexes concessioned to five private companies, only Flour Mills of Nigeria, which operates three silo complexes under three separate Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), has met all conditions and is performing optimally.
“Many concessionaires defaulted on their payment obligations, with only Flour Mills consistently meeting performance and financial conditions,” the statement added.
The Ministry’s review process revealed that several concessionaires failed to put silo facilities into optimal operating condition despite earlier agreements, highlighting that there is little or no progress in some facilities, with reported cases of vandalism and perimeter fence collapse in locations such as Ikorodu and Ogoja.
Backstory
The Nigerian government had, in 2022, revealed its plan to lease food silos to the private sector and earn N18 billion from the process.
This was disclosed by the then-Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar.
Abubakar disclosed that the FG planned to concession 19 silos to enable private sector participation in food storage for farm produce.
