Enugu targets N100bn livestock production, processing potential, as state welcomes first veterinary hospital

Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has disclosed that the administration has set a target of over ₦100 billion from livestock production and processing.

The move, he said, would boost the economy, scale up the capacity of farmers in animal husbandry, and strengthen value chain across the spectrum of agricultural sector in the state.

The governor stated this while receiving a delegation from the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) led by the National Project Coordinator, Sanusi Abubakar, who were in Enugu for the flag-off of the first Regional Enugu Model Veterinary Hospital in Enugu on Monday. 

He expressed excitement that the veterinary hospital was coming at a time the state was focused on scaling up meat and dairy production that would serve the state and beyond.

Mbah further stressed that the recent Enugu State Ranch Management Agency Law was conceived to unlock economic opportunities for the state, create employment opportunities in the livestock space and contribute to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product from $4.4 billion to $30 billion.

“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 ₦100 billion, 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, assuring sustained security of lives, property and investments.

Speaking earlier, the L-PRES coordinator, Abubakar, informed the governor that they visited to inspect the site and flag off the construction of the hospital.

According to him, the hospital, on completion, would, among others, carry out disease surveillance, maintain a healthy animal husbandry, conduct disease eradication services as well as vaccination of animals.