The Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC, Otunba Segun Rusewe says, the consumption of Nigeria food will create more employment for Nigerians especially the women, the youths and other vulnerable members of the society.
He stated this during the unveiling of a special cultural food basket.
The program is a collection of Nigerian food items locally produced by Nigerian small scale entrepreneurs.
The programme is intended to draw attention to the need to patronize made in Nigeria food and also to promote Nigerian food culture and discourage the consumption of foreign food, most of which are preserved with chemicals that have long term effects.
Otunba Rusewe said, Nigeria is blessed by God with a variety of food items and the time is now to encourage Nigerian cuisines, adding that all nations of the world are devising various strategies of mitigating the effects of Covid-19.
“No doubt, the pandemic has come with severe hardship to all citizens of the world, but with the promotion of our brand of food, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will be minimized”.
He stressed that, nations of the world are now forced to look inward with a view to empowering their citizens so that they can cope with the realities of the moment.
According to him, Nigeria cultural foods are not only natural and rich in nutrients, but most of them are medicinal and help to build the body and boost the immune system.
“It is for this reason that the National Council for Arts and Culture is collaborating with the Business Visa to implement this programme.Nigerian food basket we are unveiling today has created over 2000 direct jobs, 2,500 indirect jobs and has the prospect of creating over 5 million jobs if sustained”.
“Our ultimate objective is to make these cultural food baskets a handy gift for Christmas, weddings, naming ceremonies, birthdays and other related celebrations”.
The NCAC boss emphasized that, if Nigerians can promote and patronize Nigeria products, the level of unemployment will reduce and people will be economically empowered.
