Dr Kabir Yusuf, the National Project Coordinator, Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ), says the programme is a catalyst for the transformation and growth of the Nigerian economy. Yusuf said this in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the SAPZ Implementation Acceleration Dialogue and States Steering/Technical Committee Workshop in Abuja. He said SAPZ was building catalytic infrastructure to attract investment into value-added processing, infrastructure that would de-risk the agricultural sector and reduce transaction costs. 'If you are a rice processor and you need to be competitive, what is your greatest challenge in this country? Power. 'So, we have obtained loans of $538 million with long-term repayment and moratorium period. 'We will be able to provide investors with cheap and affordable power at a minimal cost. Sustainable power that will enable them produce such that their output will be very cheap,' said Yusuf. He said he was optimistic about the SAPZ project: 'Because n obody would see benefits and let it go, especially the state governors that were elected specifically to serve the people. 'You see, SAPZ is a game changer. It is actually the answer to diversify Nigeria's economy through agriculture. It changes the narrative of looking at agriculture not as a way of life, but as a profit-making business.' He said the SAPZ project was based on a design, build and operate (DBO) model, which would come on board in December. 'Mr President has declared food security emergency for agriculture, and has mandated the Minister of Agriculture to ensure that something is done quickly. 'And we've seen the potential for SAPZ to do that, which is why we now decided, let us go the DBO model. 'We will ensure in no time that we have production and processing in-country, domesticating the processing of whatever commodity we produce,' he said. He stated that the SAPZ management had sent a team to all the states to get their requirements, preparatory to signing agreements with the DBO cont ractors by December. 'The requirements are the measurements, the site locations, the activities needed, the power locations for a bidder to be able to bid and put cost to it. 'And we've also had several meetings with the Director-General of the African Development Bank, just to see how best we can we follow the rules. 'By January, we're going to mobilise them. And most of them would have just a span of 12 months for us to see a well-built processing,' he said. Yusuf assured that the SAPZ project was backed by a financing agreement that stipulated the rules and regulations governing the uptake of the loan. He said the Federal Government guaranteed the uptake of the SAPZ loan, and onboarded 80 per cent of the loan to the states under a subsidiary loan agreement. 'So, SAPZ stipulates all the rules and regulations and conditions. That is why the Federal Government has a national coordinating office with me as the head. 'We supervise the utilisation of the loan to ensure it is according to the financing agr eement that was signed between the federal government and the development finance institution,' he said. He explained that the preparatory phase of SAPZ project included detailed appraisal, documentation and approval by the financiers, followed by internal approval by the Federal Executive Council. He said the Attorney General of the Federation was also required to give a legal opinion before concluding the transaction. 'Of course, you would understand that there are terms that the country may not agree to. There are terms that the financiers may not agree to. So, these are negotiations to ensure that all parties are comfortable. Yusuf gave an insight into the SAPZ project model, citing the case of Cross River, which has cocoa as its priority commodity, the main ingredient for producing chocolate. 'About 70 per cent of the world's cocoa is gotten from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire. 'Currently, chocolate is a $100 billion industry. The farmers from these four West African countries only get two per cent of that because we do not add value. We just produce and we export,' said Yusuf. He said the mandate of the SAPZ was to ensure value addition, that whatever was produced would be processed to sell within the country, before being exported. 'We have one of the largest populations in Africa. We have the market. We also have the purchasing power. It's from production, aggregation, processing and marketing,' said Yusuf. Source: News Agency of Nigeria