To boost chicken and eggs production, the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has secured N600 million loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria, to establish a commercial poultry farm targeted at building the spirit of entrepreneurial skills among students and generate employment opportunities.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Technology and Innovation, of the university, Professor Mikhail Buhari, disclosed this while speaking with journalists, noting that the university was the only institution that got the highly competitive loan.
The CBN introduces the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES), targeting at raising awareness and visibility of entrepreneurial or technological innovations among higher institutions of learning in the country.
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The scheme was opened in form of competition for tertiary institutions, while Body of Experts (BoE) constituted from the private and public sector evaluated entrepreneurial and technological innovations submitted by the institutions.
Professor Buhari explained that the university got the loan as a result of the brilliant proposal it submitted which was rated as the best of presentations made by competing universities across the country.
He added that the Poultry when operational, would reduce importation and close the existing demand and supply gap of eggs and allied poultry products by playing a key role in the agro-based business toward reviving the poultry sub-sector.
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According to him, the farm has been proposed to contain a layers’ population of 16,000 which translates to 3,679,200 eggs per year, 5,000 broilers per week and raise 9,000 day-old broilers weekly.
He said that the farm was situated at Amoyo in the Ifelodun Local Government Area, and that the university would be running the farm with the support of an external consultant as a typical business venture with its own board of directors and would be accountable to the Vice-Chancellor.
