The Vice President of Olam Food Ingredients, OFI, Dairy in Nigeria, Paulsamy Praveen, has revealed that its ‘Milk Mission’, encapsulates its absolute commitment to raising the productivity level in the dairy sector while engendering a performance scale that would push the sector towards fulfilling its economic contributory potential.
Outspan Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of ofi (Olam food ingredients) is stimulating growth, generating valuable employment opportunities as well as tackling long-standing issues in the sector.
The local dairy sector has a strong potential to contribute extensively to the national economic growth considering around 1.3 billion tons of milk are consumed in the country annually.
However, niggling issues such as low productivity level, poor cattle health, the dearth of wider cold chain services, inefficient logistics systems, and low exposure to modern agronomic practices among smallholder dairy farmers continue to stifle the sector’s potential.
Outspan set out to address these issues through its ‘Milk Mission’ initiative which combines a robust public-private partnership (PPP) strategy and unyielding focus on the Federal Government’s sectoral development agenda to reposition the sector.
Paulsamy Praveen spoke during the commissioning of a newly procured cold truck for its Milk Collection Centres, MCCs, recently.
There are four MCCs located close to smallholder dairy farmers in Kano state. The centres are equipped with adequate cooling systems that are powered by off-grid equipment.
Outspan has also provided transportation and cooling systems to ensure the quality of the raw milk produced in the region is preserved and optimized for industrial use.
Speaking on the MCCs, Dr Suleiman Musa Suleiman, a veterinary doctor and a dairy consultant expatiates on Outspan’s growing impact.
He revealed that Outspan Nigeria Limited is providing solutions to the various challenges in the value chain. The business is investing in locating milk collection Centre’s (MCC) closer to the dairy farmers in the different clusters.
According to him, “I happened to be part of the beginning of this whole partnership between
Outspan Nigeria Limited and the Kano Dairy & Livestock Husbandry Cooperative Union (KADALCU); I even partook in the MoU signing process. To be honest with you, I am impressed. I am impressed in the sense that they made a promise, and they are fulfilling it. We have not had to start running after them to perform what they promised.”
He continued, “We started with the challenges of milk collection; they have addressed the challenges by providing many Milk Collection Centres (MCC) and a modern bulking centre that is well equipped with modern facilities, including solar-powered energy solution, which is good for rural, remote areas that are typical of a dairy settlement.”
He added that Outspan’s intervention programmes are helping smallholder dairy farmers address wastage which had consistently hampered output. The business also conducts training for the farmers to bring them up to speed with useful modern dairy farming techniques.
Also, Alhaji Usman Abdullahi Usman, the chairman of the Kano Dairy and Livestock Husbandry Cooperative Union (KADALCU), said the collaborative efforts ingeniously framed for the development of the key agriculture sector are yielding positive results.
Citing the positive impacts of the PPP framework in the Kano dairy sector, he said, “One of the goal of the union is to generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for the youth.
With the intervention of Outspan Nigeria Limited, we have been able to secure motorbikes and tricycles which have been issued out to the youth vendors to go to the Fulani clusters and collect the milk for processing at the milk collection centres.”
As part of its support for farmers’ children with educational materials during the commemoration of the 2022 World Milk Day (WMD), the business’ HR team invited children of employees for a full day of fun and learning tagged ‘Kids’ Fun Day’, at their Corporate Office in Lagos.
The Kids’ Fun Day is an engaging, entertaining, immersive, and inspiring event that features a guided facility tour, games, arts, and crafts, and lots of healthy foods to eat and drink for the kids and their parents. The event combines learning with lots of fun as kids learn about Olam Agri and its business across Nigeria.
Speaking about the event, Ibironke Alabi, General Manager, Learning and Development, Olam Agri Nigeria, said, “There was no better way to wind up the summer break than to get our kids together for a fun and learning event.”
“We are conscious of the dual role employees will continue to play and, on our part, ensuring smooth integration of work-life balance to sustain team engagement and high performance. Every prospective employee would love to work for a company like Olam Agri, where employees feel supported in every area of their life,” said added.
