The Federal Government has expressed concern over the poor performance of most private operators who secured concessions to manage the nation’s silo complexes, saying abandoned and vandalised facilities would soon be recovered.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, stated this yesterday in Abuja during a meeting with a delegation from the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), led by its Director-General, Dr. Jobson Ewalefoh.
He disclosed that out of 17 silo complexes concessioned to five private companies, only Flour Mills of Nigeria, which operates three silos under different Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), had lived up to expectations.
“Several concessionaires have failed to operationalise their facilities as agreed. Our monitoring visits show cases of vandalisation and perimeter fence collapse, particularly in Ikorodu and Ogoja. Some have also defaulted in their payment obligations,” Kyari said.
He warned that government would not allow critical storage infrastructure to waste, stressing that the ministry, in collaboration with the ICRC, would enforce compliance and retrieve non-performing facilities.
On his part, Ewalefoh insisted that only companies with genuine operational needs for silos should continue to hold them.
“Where concessionaires have abandoned facilities or failed to remit returns, government must take them back and hand them over to serious operators,” he said.