A
team of highly experienced technical staff of NASCO Foods Limited, Jos visited
the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi on Wednesday, 13th
January, 2016 at the instance of the Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Science
and Technology (FMST), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu for further discussion on the collaborative
effort on the National School Feeding Programme. The team was received on
arrival by the DG/CEO of FIIRO, Dr. (Mrs.) Gloria N. Elemo and some other top management
staff of the Institute including: Director, Chemical, Fibre and Environmental
Technology - Dr. Chima Igwe; Director, Food Technology - Dr. (Mrs.) Toyin
Oluwole and Director, Extension & Linkage -Dr. Dele Oyeku. On NASCO team
were: Technical Director -Alh. Bala Saleh; Supply Chain Director - Alh.
Mohammed Shakir; Marketing Manager - Mr. James Iwunze; Category Brand Manager- Mr.
Gbolahan Oyenuga and Mr. Haruna Harry Audu – Legal Adviser.
The
visit was in respect of the collaborative effort of FMST/FIIRO – NASCO for
commercial production of High Nutrient Density (HND) Biscuit developed by FMST
through FIIRO for the School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government. The HND
biscuit is developed to meet one third Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)
requirements of school age children to be produced on commercial basis by NASCO
Foods Limited. According to the DG/CEO, FIIRO, Dr. (Mrs.) G.N Elemo, the
collaboration is going to be win- win for all the parties involved and the
benefit is enormous from the angle of utilization of indigenous raw materials in
the formulation of the biscuits; conservation of foreign exchange; creation of
jobs and improvement in enrolments of school children as well as enhancement of
mental capacity of the children.
For
NASCO team, the decision to partner with FIIRO in the commercial production of
the HND Biscuit for the school feeding program was based on FIIRO’s integrity
and achievements over the years. The team mentioned that NASCO as an indigenous
company has been in existence for about 50years and has the capacity and
experience to produce biscuit products to feed estimated 25million children
under the National School Feeding Programme on daily basis.
Mr.
Patrick Usen of InterHeritage Promotions, another partner in the collaboration,
highlighted the negative implications of food being cooked directly by local
caterers as a method of home grown school feeding as being embraced by some
states in Nigeria. He said that the world best practices should be embraced as being
championed by the FMST/FIIRO-NASCO-InterHeritage collaboration.
At
the end of the technical session, timelines were drawn for some of the major
activities including MoU signing (Wednesday, 20th January, 2016); Commencement
of pilot trial runs on NASCO Biscuit production lines (Wednesday, 27th
January, 2016); Stakeholders’/Consultative Forum (Thursday, 25th
February, 2016) and Product Launch on Thursday, 28th April, 2016.
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