NIGERIA – Royal FrieslandCampina, the Dutch multinational dairy cooperative will invest US$26.69 million (23 Euros) in local milk production as part of its Dairy Development Programme (DDP) in Nigeria.
Speaking during a visit to the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the company’s global CEO also highlighted the company’s commitment to support the country’s economic initiative through its dairy initiative.
“The Vice President asked us to continue to invest in local dairy farming to increase local production of milk and we are fully aligned with his request.
We will take forward the programmes we have been running and expand them.”
“We are investing around 23 million euros in our evaporated milk and ready-to-drink milk factory in order to provide fresh milk for the Nigerian consumer. FrieslandCampina WAMCO has been successful with dairy development in recent years and milk yield is improving.” Schumacher said.
FrieslandCampina has established four model farms with crossbreed cows to improve local milk collection across its five milk collection centres.
The company is working with 3,500 dairy farmers in over 90 farming communities in Oyo State by providing them with the required knowledge for sustainable livelihoods among communities.
They plan to transform additional 500 pastoralists to settle dairy farmers under the DDP model as 100,000 people had already benefited from the program.
“Our Company is fully committed to working with local farmers to grow local milk production and ultimately ensure that Nigerians continue to benefit from the nutritious content of milk,” said FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s DDP, Managing Director, Ben Langat.
The Vice President spoke about the need to develop a robust plan to improve local production across the country.
“The plan of extending the dairy development programme to other states is extremely important.
I think that backward integration is crucial. My worry is the lack of incentives for backward integration.”
He added that the federal government was ready to support the company to actualize set business objectives while urging for better synergy between the public and private sectors.
