Govt should pump money into agriculture, monitor its utilization – Leonard Otuya

LEONARD OTUYA is the Chief Executive Officer of RIL Agricultural Services. In this interview with ISAAC NGUMAH, Otuya talks about Agribusiness, problems confronting farmers and what government can do to support farmers and agribusiness in Nigeria. Excerpt:

Can we meet you?

I am Mr. Leonard Otuya, the CEO of RIL agricultural services. RIL Agricultural Services is an agricultural firm that is into the procurements and supply of all kinds of agricultural equipment and some of this equipment are used for the cultivation and production of feeds for animals, we also provide agricultural services for the cultivation and tilling of the grass, we help in Palm oil production and different kinds of oil extractions, machine’s that are used for the making of feeds for animals eg cow goat’s fishes and all of that, any kind of agricultural machine’s that you want we supply we supply is usually within Nigeria and most African countries if you want any specifications of any kind of machines we talk to the manufacturers they make them available and we supply them we also help some state government that are into farming in their state to do some awareness in terms of training farmers on farm’s activities some organizations that will need us to talk some people that want to go into farming such as poultry, rearing of animals like snail’s, cow goat etc and how they want to go about it, we give them different training analysis and practicalising what we taught them in class we show them practice step by steps examples those that want to go into fisheries practically we will teach all that is entails we help you to set up your fish pond, if it is poultry we help you to set up your poultry house provided you pay for the services, what we do is supply of agricultural machines of all kinds and training prospective farmers on specifically on what they want to go into.

Which of the African countries do you supply to?

Cameroon; we supply to Cameroon majorly and Gabon but our clients are in Cameroon

Can you tell us about your awareness and training activities?

We don’t initiate training; we are usually called to train people. We can get a call, a contract to train and educate people that want to go into farming depending on your area of specialization. Like those in fisheries, the basic things that need to be put in place, what they need and how to go about it after the training sessions if the organization has means of establishing them, for example, we can help to set up their fish pond; setting up the production process till finish; we can help to set up their poultry house based on how they want it; equipping them with the basic equipments needed; teaching them on how to manage the business and if they have any issues or complain, they can call us for enquiries.

Tell us about your strategy and growth in the industry

Our strategy is to partner with many manufacturers for the production of those equipment because some of those specialized equipment are monopolized so we usually get the machines from the major source that is our major role in the industry in terms of equipment’s we have few people that have the capacity to import the machines we partner with the major importer of those machines to supply us directly from China and we supply to our agent’s

Tell us about your growth in the industry

Once you do well and excellently, you will always grow.

Tell us about your prospect in the industry

To be one of the best and biggest in the nearest future

What is your focus in the industry?

Our focus is cultivation, planting and harvesting of cash crops foods items for major supply for commercial purposes.

What drives you in the industry?

We don’t want a situation where people will be looking for this thing’s they will not get it our aim is to make these things available at a very good rate while we make money

Why did you go into Agribusiness?

We are looking at helping the masses in the supply of food items so that there won’t be scarcity taking as valuable to people that needs it.

How long have you been in the industry?

It was founded in 2020.

What are your challenges in the industry?

Finance and access to government to support. As for us, the kind of farming we want do is capital intensive; we want to go into commercialized agriculture,, Availability of finance for seedlings, finance for agricultural machines; finance for acquisition of farmland, so, majorly finance

What is the future of agricultural business in Nigeria?

looking at the nearest future I will tell you that agriculture can only grow bigger because even the government are looking at turning their eye’s away from petroleum and petrol chemical products and looking at how at how they can diversify to other sectors and make more money from other sectors, one of the major sectors they are looking at is agric so if the government pays more attention to agriculture, we will be having enough and also supplying to other countries.

What can you say on the present government in power in supporting agribusiness in Nigeria?

They have not shown us anything because it is a new government.

Can you tell us about RIL Logistics Cargo International?

It is a logistics company and our services range from import services, export services, clearing and forwarding services, warehousing, procurements and local transportation. RIL logistics covers shipments in and outside Nigeria, the US, Canada, UK, all African countries and the Europe. We receive packages from these countries to Nigeria and we can send to those countries. We do procurements for clients in Nigeria that need services from different countries that want to procure; we can help to procure those items down here clearing and delivering to their door steps and some of the things we send from Nigeria are our local farm produce, our food stuffs and textile materials to UK, Europe and African countries. Some of the spare parts that we handle from Nigeria, we can export them to majorly African countries some of the items we bring to Nigeria from other countries like Europe range from cars, furniture homes used or fairly used electronics etc; we cut across a whole lot of things, we import and export.

Can you tell us about your experience in designing any type of agricultural machines like grinding machines?

We have professionals that handle that directly from the manufacturers. So, I don’t have issues on that.

How do you want government to support agric business in terms of funds?

The government has to pump so much money into agriculture; they should set up teams to monitor to make sure the money is utilized for agriculture. The money that the government is giving to farmers has not got to the real farmers because we have ghost farmers who are diverting the resources.

What are your contributions to the growth of Nigeria Economy?

We provide food in our own little ways; we have people that work in those farms who are on payroll

How have you been creating jobs?

We have those who do the weeding, cultivation, planting, irrigation, for poultry we have those who manages your birds, all those people at different segments of agriculture we pay them nobody works for free depending on what they are doing.

What are your impacts?

Our aim is to create more opportunities for labourers and workers who will give employment to the people.

For a better society