The Director General of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe, has said the promotion of Nigerian food culture was a collective responsibility as it encourages healthy living, create employment opportunities for our teeming unemployed youths and open up business opportunities at the micro and macro levels.
Runsewe, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, said the media parley was intended to draw attention of Nigerians to the need to patronise made-in-Nigeria food, promote the Nigerian food culture and discourage the consumption of foreign foods most of which he said were preserved with chemicals that had long time negative effects on our human body.
He added that all nations of the world were devising various strategies of mitigating the effects of COVID-19, noting that the promotion of the consumption of our brand of our food, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic would be minimised.
According to Runsewe, “Nigerian foods are not only natural and rich in nutrients, most of our foods are medicinal and can help to build the body and boost our immunity system.”
The NCAC boss said that the Nigerian food basket had the capacity to create 2,000 direct and 2,500 indirect jobs in a short term and over 5 million jobs in the long run if sustained.
He urged all Nigerians to promote and patronise Nigerian cultural products as that will help to reduce the level of unemployment and also empower our people economically.
The Executive Chairman, Business Visa Limited, Alhaji Sani Garba, in his contribution stated that Business Visa was a non-governmental organisation putting together a platform where all the small scale entrepreneurs, especially women and youths could come together and express themselves in terms of availing themselves of business opportunities available to them and come together to harness such opportunities and proffer solutions to their problems.
He pleaded with the federal government to create an enabling environment for small scale entrepreneurs, especially the ones in agro businesses to market their finished products.
