The Donkey Skin Processors Marketers and Export
Association, DSPMEA, has refuted claims by a United Kingdom-based group, the
Donkey Sanctuary, that the Nigerian donkey species are going into extinction.
To ensure the growth of the sector, the body said it has
concluded plans to visit Nigeria between May 13 and 15 to seek support for a
bill to prohibit the killing and export of donkeys or their derivatives as
reported in one of the Nigerian dailies on May 7.
In a statement issued yesterday by its National Vice
President, Ifeanyi Dike, the DSPMEA said that the claim that donkey population
is going into extinction was false. He added that the association in
collaboration with the Earth wheel Logistics Ltd, a private company, has
established a multi-billion-naira investment used in breeding, processing,
marketing and the export of donkeys and donkey derivatives in some parts of the
country.
“We have set up donkey ranches in Bauchi and Jigawa states
and other parts of the north, and we have established another mini ranch in
Ufuma in Anambra State, where modern facilities have been put in place to
enhance the breeding of donkeys, which in the long run will multiply the donkey
population in the country in their millions.
“This initiative to
produce more donkeys and use their derivatives for export in order to earn
foreign exchange for Nigeria is in line with the diversification agenda of the
Federal Government in the agriculture sector”, he said. The statement also
noted that the Donkey producers and processors, with about 5,000 members in the
country, are also collaborating with the Nigerian Animal Production Research
Institute (NAPRI) for a structured framework to breed donkeys to preserve the
local stock and to tackle the menace of smuggling.
“We understand the need to grow our local donkey stock and
that is why we are working with the Federal Government on modalities to
regulate the breeding, processing, marketing and exporting of donkeys and
donkey products which will benefit the government as well as create the needed
jobs and stop smuggling our donkeys,” he added.
He said further that the donkey business value chain has
created over 5,000 jobs ranging from the people who are breeding to those who
are slaughtering and those who are selling even as he called on government to
take cognizance of this value chain and avoid any imposition of ban on the
business to avoid people being thrown out of jobs in this era of high
unemployment.
He pointed out that donkeys are very traditional to the
Nigerian people as people use them in varied ways including for food, stressing
that is the reason the entire Nigerian people must be educated and enlightened
on how to grow the donkeys which is exactly what the investors are trying to
do.
“Donkeys are traditionally used as a symbol of authority,
gift and weddings in parts of the South East and South South and also the
project did not exclude local breeding.
“We have a project of village breeding where the
association and Earth wheel Logistics Limited is distributing donkeys to
villagers for them to breed so that these donkeys will not go into extinction
because in the next five years we want the population of donkeys to be more
than cows in Nigeria. So the corporate bodies and individuals are investing in
local headers to achieve this purpose,” he said.
He explained that Earth wheel Logistics has concluded VB
arrangement with a foreign partner, who will assist in teaching the latest
technology on donkey breeding and enhance the capacity of the breeders.
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