Is there anything stopping Nigeria’s rich evangelical churches from investing in cattle ranches across the south of the country?

Ayo Akinfe

(1) We have flogged the issue of cattle ranches to death and called for the construction of several mega ones across northern Nigeria. However, this should not be exclude the opening of smaller ones across the south of the country

(2) I for one maintain that Nigeria’s six biggest states by landmass should each have a mega ranch of at least 50,000 square kilometres. Borno, Niger, Taraba, Yobe, Bauchi and Kaduna can all easily afford this

(3) However, nothing stops smaller southern states from opening mini ranches of say 1,000 square kilometres. Oyo, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Ogun and Ondo states for instance can all afford to spare this amount of land

(4) Research from the US has shown that celebrities such as actor Harrison Ford, CNN founder Ted Turner and former talk show host David Letterman, all own private ranches. Back out west side in the US, you can get a decent sized ranch for about $10m

(5) Now let us look at the reality of how the livestock industry will shape up in Nigeria. We want to see mega ranches built across those northern states with large land masses. Such ranches should effectively be mini towns with accompanying veterinary clinics, animal feed compounding plants, leather tanning factories, dairy plants, police stations, technical training colleges, etc

(6) We also want to see nomadism totally outlawed. This will mean that livestock will have to be moved from these ranches to market by rail. Building up a national railway network and all these other facilities will take at least five years

(7) While all this development is going on, local ranches will be required to furnish the market. I actually believe that two ranches in each geo-political zone should be sufficient to meet local needs

(8) Over the long term, the mega ranches of northern Nigeria should be for export needs. Domestic demand can be met by local ranches, allowing the mega facilities to focus on generating something like $50bn in export earnings. Maybe Nigeria has accidentally stumbled on the perfect substitute for crude oil here

(9) This now raises the question of how many private investors in southern Nigeria have $10m to invest in a cattle ranch? I cannot look any further than our evangelical churches at the moment. I challenge anyone to name me a set of millionaires with deeper pockets than pastorprueners in Nigeria at the moment

(10) Just imagine the number of jobs this would create, the amount of wealth and tax it would generate and the contribution it would make to Nigerian protein nutrition. I believe Bishop Oyedepo recently announced plans to build a mega church. I think he should be asked to put such plans on hold as the livestock and ranching matter is more urgent and pressing. I am sure the likes of Governors Makinde, Ayade, Akeredolu, Okowa, Obaseki, etc will happily make the land available