FG INAUGURATES COMMITTEE ON NAITS TO IDENTIFY, TRACK AND CURB LIVESTOCK RUSTLING IN NIGERIA
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The Inter-departmental Technical and Implementation Committee (the Working Group) for the National Animal Identification and Traceability System (NAITS) was established by Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, in accordance with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to make Nigeria food secure. The Working Group’s goal is to identify, track, and stop livestock rustling in Nigeria.
The Permanent Secretary, represented by Director Planning and Policy Coordination, Mr. Ibrahim Taminu, recently spoke at an event held in the Hon. Minister’s Conference Room. He stated that the implementation of NAITS would help livestock owners identify their animals, reduce livestock rustling, facilitate interventions in the livestock sector, provide credit and insurance, control livestock movement, record animals for genetic improvement and research, make traceability easier, provide surveillance, control animal disease, and facilitate trade.
He underlined that the NAITS was a complete system for managing animal information that would be used to track and identify livestock throughout Nigeria by combining digital technology with cattle passports and ear tags that are resistant to counterfeiting.
The progress made so far to actualize animal identification and traceability in Nigeria, as well as other innovations in agriculture, have been largely driven by digital transformation, which has produced exponential results, he noted, adding that technology advancement has rapidly enhanced productivity across all sectors of the economy.
The Permanent Secretary noted that the Department of Animal Husbandry Services served as the home of NAITS’ operational management centre when it was first established on November 17, 2022, by the Minister in the immediate past, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar.
He added that a lot of sensitization activities had been going on in selected states for their buy-in and adoption for national coherence of efforts at achieving a robust livestock information database, improved production and efficient animal disease control.
In his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer, Mega Corp, Mr. Uchenna Ononye pointed out the benefits of NAITS to include; the ability to identify and trace all livestock in the country, security management, data collation, improved animal husbandry, increased employment amongst others, adding that an App had been developed to that effect and called on government for creation of more awareness and sensitization.
The Inter-Departmental Technical and Implementation Committee for NAITS was one of the required standing structures for full implementation of the system charged with the following Terms of Reference (ToR); to review the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for NAITS, review the existing MoU with MegaCorp (Technical Partner) and facilitate the buy-in and adoption of the system by MDAs and State governments.
The inauguration marks the kick-off of the committee’s activities for achieving the aforementioned functions and members of the Committee were drawn from the Ministry and its agencies, as well as MegaCorp.
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