ProteinTrail Technology, a government solution focused on sanitising Nigeria’s meat value chain, has urged the nation to leverage technology to tap into the livestock export market.
The company’s CEO, Muritala Alade-Bamgbala, noted this in an interview on Thursday in Lagos.
He said the country’s inability to tap into the livestock market was due to the absence of a robust system to track and monitor livestock movement and health status.
Mr Alade-Bamgbala emphasised the need to leverage technology to reduce the risk of transferring zoonotic diseases from animals to humans.
He said technology could be used to track and monitor the entire history of livestock through digitisation to ensure a safer food system.
Mr Alade-Bamgbala reiterated the need for digitisation in the livestock industry.
According to him, digital solutions will provide established institutions with access to the history of the livestock they wish to purchase.
“The livestock sector is crucial to Nigeria’s economy, contributing significantly to the country’s gross domestic product. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development estimates that the livestock sub-sector contributes about one-third of the 21 per cent of the GDP.
“However, the sector’s potential has not been fully maximised due to various challenges. The sector’s growth is hindered by lack of transparency and traceability,” said Mr Alade-Bamgbala.
The ProteinTrail boss explained that leveraging technology to trace the history of animals from birth to slaughter would help avert such issues.
Mr Alade-Bamgbala noted that in Nigeria, livestock certification was traditionally done in hard copy, leaving room for counterfeit certificates. He cited examples of Western countries where technology had been successfully leveraged to track livestock history and ensure food safety.
“For instance, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the United States uses a digital system to track livestock movement and health status,” Mr Alade-Bamgbala added.
(NAN)
