Otti promises support for proposed multi-million dollar dairy farm in Abia

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has promised to support the proposed establishment of a multi-million dollar dairy farm in the state.

Mr Otti spoke on Sunday when he received a delegation from Blue Ribbon Limited, a private firm which approached the Abia State Government in 2024 with a proposal to build a dairy farm.

The delegation was led by the Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Idris Wabara.

Details of the meeting were in a statement issued by the governor’s spokesperson, Ukoha Njoku.

‘We‘ll support you’

After receiving the progress report from the delegation, Mr Otti assured that his administration would support the firm to set up the dairy farm in the state.

“I don’t know what exactly it is you are looking for, but if there is anything we can help you with, you can take that for granted.

“My team and I would do everything possible to support you so the project can take off,” he assured.

“Maybe we need to have a smaller section where you will table exactly what you need so that we can also say what we can do.”

Establish timelines

Mr Otti expressed concerns that the commencement of the project had been delayed more than he had expected after they met for the first time in 2024.

The governor stressed the importance of establishing timelines of execution.

“We know that it is something that would take a little bit of time, maybe we were not expecting that it will take one year to still be on the drawing table.

“But then, it is heartwarming that you are intensively on it. But, most importantly, we need to also establish timelines of delivery,” he said.

Immediate funding plans

Mr Otti urged the firm to make “immediate and short-term funding plans” from local banks that can provide a guarantee even while approaching “credible organisations” such as the AFDB and Afrexim bank.

The governor explained that by the time they put all the data and send it to the international financiers, they would take their time to analyse the data, confirm, and go through the approval process to make liquidity available.

He stressed that the short-term financial plans would be taken out when the funding from the international organisations finally arrived.

Mr Otti added that the plan would help cut the cost because the longer the wait, the more expensive the project would become.

Earlier in his speech, Mr Wabara said they have engaged with the AFDB, through which they had also engaged with investors from Japan.

The CEO disclosed that they had also engaged Afreximbank, which had invited them to a meeting in Cairo to secure final approval for the project’s funding.

He said his team of expatriates from Israel with long-standing experience in the field of dairy conducted a feasibility study and a master plan for the project.

Mr Wabara said the study would conclude in Abia the next day and continue with PWC in Lagos for further data capture.

He added that the groundbreaking would be performed before the end of 2025.

The CEO expressed confidence that, with the governor’s support, the project would place Abia at the top of livestock investment in the country, adding that what they are trying to do has not been done in this part of the country.

Apart from Mr Otti, the Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Cliff Agbaeze, the Director-General and CEO of the Public Private Partnership and Investment Promotion Office, and Chinedum Chijioke were among those who participated in the meeting.

Chinenye Alajemba, the special adviser on Homeland Security to the governor, was also at the meeting.