NIRSAL, stakeholders’ move to address multiple taxation in transportation of food produce

The Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending has engaged agricultural stakeholders to develop a system to address challenges in the transportation of agricultural produce across the country.
Speaking at a workshop for agriculture stakeholders in Abuja on Wednesday, the Managing Director of NIRSAL, Aliyu Abdulhameed, said the system known as the Secured Agricultural Commodity Transport Corridor would help reduce multiple taxation and high cost of food prices.
Abdulhameed said the workshop was aimed at strategising to map out a transport system that would engender efficient and effective haulage of agricultural commodities to export terminals and consumer markets.
He said that SAT-C was made up of four components of secured commodity aggregation zones, dedicated commodity routes, specialised haulage services and agro-runners to facilitate movement of produce.
The managing director noted that the system when actualised would help reduce an estimated 8.9 billion dollar worth of post-harvest losses in the country.
Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the Federal Government would facilitate policies that would aid the successful implementation of SAT-C, for effective delivery of agricultural produce.
Ogbeh, represented by Alhaji Muyiwa Azeez, the Director, Agribusiness, Processing and Marketing in the ministry, said that the government would provide an enabling environment to encourage the use of the available aggregation and crops processing centers for the initiative.
He said:  “We are supporting this initiative and cooperate with right policies.”
Babajide Arowosafe, the Executive Director, Technical of NIRSAL, said that an estimated N2.7 trillion worth of food was being lost due to inefficient supply chain.
Abdullahi Ringim, the Deputy Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, commended NIRSAL for the initiative.
Ringim assured the corps would work with various stakeholders to ensure the easy transportation of agricultural produce to different states.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that representatives from the Joint Tax Board, National Union of Road Transport Workers, Nigeria Export Promotion Council and various farmers associations attended the workshop.
NAN also reports that NIRSAL was launched in 2011 and incorporated in 2013 by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a dynamic, holistic 500 Million dollars public-private initiative to define, measure, price and share agribusiness related credit risk.