CBI PARTNERS NEPC ON NIGERIA GINGER SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT

The CBI Nigeria Ginger Sustainability Project 2021-2025 is a 4 years intervention program being implemented in Nigeria within the framework of CBI Business Export Coaching Project (BEC) by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing countries CBI.

The long-term vision of the project is to sustainably improve the livelihoods of Nigerians involved in the ginger value-chain by increasing exports and value obtained from the crop.

As part of the on-going collaboration of the Council with the CBI in the implementation of the project, the CBI Team today led by the program Manager, Ms Lissane Van De Kerkhof paid a courtesy call to the Executive Director/CEO Dr. Ezra Yakusak and the NEPC management .The objective was to brief the ED/CEO on the status update and the progress report of the project for 2023.

While in the mission to Nigeria the project Team is scheduled to conduct workshops to carry out training activities within the framework of the project for NEPC Export Support Officers (ESO) and the ginger SMEs selected for the project on corporate social responsibility (CSR), food Safety and commence preparation and profiling of SMEs for participation in the ANUGA food fair schedule for October, 2023 in Cologne, Germany

The Team lead, Ms Lissane de kerkhof in her remarks formally introduced the new Institutional expert of the project Mr. Kesper kerver who took over from Mr. Hugo Lemmers to lead the team. She conveyed the appreciation of the CBI to the NEPC for the mutual collaboration and the support of the NEPC in the implementation of the project activities since it commenced in 2021. She informed the team that 2 SME’s out of the initial 17 selected for the project  have being dropped  due to non- commitment by the companies.

She further informed the team that during the mission  engagement with the SMEs will commence in order to start preparation for the ANUGA food fair in October, she said the ANUGA food fair will be a participatory approach were about 6-7 companies will be selected among the participating SMEs in the program that will share a common pavilion with the CBI to display their products, the team called on the NEPC to consider the possibility of having a common pavilion with the CBI either in the ANUGA fair or in future food ingredients fairs.