FUNAAB incorporates agro-allied industrial park unit

The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) has upgraded and incorporated several agro-allied units into FUNAAB Companies, and re-positioned them for agric-based processing and production.

The upgraded FUNAAB Companies, which was established in 2009 as Industrial Park Unit, incorporates breweries where local drinks such as palm wine, are being processed; bakery for bread and confectioneries production; milling plants where palm oil, cashew, honey, rice, cassava and yam flours are being processed as well as butchery.

Speaking on the recent upgrade of former Industrial Park Unit to FUNAAB Companies, Modupe Agbotoba, Production Manager, FUNAAB Companies, disclosed that the transformation was imperative in order to expand the scope of agriculture-based processing and production for more wealth creation, employment generation, efficiency and better service delivery.

She said that the companies had been upgraded to serve as an industrial training centre for students through training and re-training methods in processing and production expertise as well as techniques, adding that efforts were at the final stages to ensure that all companies’ products were duly registered by National Agency for Food, Drug, Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and made available to markets across the country.

While speaking on sources of raw-materials, Agbotoba explained that FUNAAB Companies sourced raw-materials internally from FUNAAB – Agricultural Media Resources and Extension Centre (AMREC) and other relevant centres within the university as well as other farmers outside the institution, who supply produce on regular basis, to the FUNAAB Companies.

Meanwhile, Margaret Bamgbose, accountant, FUNAAB Companies, who lauded the University Management for recent purchase of two buses for operational use within the companies, revealed that a lot still needed to be done in terms of funding, which is a major challenge,  explaining that the effort was a follow-up to Federal Government’s policy on self-reliance.