The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari has described as incorrect, the statement by the National Assembly North – East Caucus that its zone was ” completely excluded” from the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) programme.

In a statement at the weekend, Kyari explained that the program – aimed at promoting agricultural industrialization – operates in phases, with states required to express interest and meet eligibility criteria to participate.

The Minister said they had received Expression of Interests from 27 States but only 10 States fully complied with the eligibility criteria which includes Gombe, Borno and Bauchi States for the first tranche of phase 2 as they will be 3 tranches of onboarding states in the phase two of the programme which had already commenced in earnest.

The Minister thus appealed to the legislators especially the North East NASS Caucus to appeal to the other Governors of Taraba, Yobe, and Adamawa to reinvigorate their interest in the program and fulfill the eligibility criteria for the second phase.

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