20th December, 2023
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has directed the country’s High Commission in Nigeria to immediately start necessary documentation to fast-track procurement of multipurpose 120-horsepower Bob Tractors assembled in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Vianney Rubagumya, the Second Counsellor, at the Rwandan High Commission to Nigeria, disclosed this to our Correspondent in Port Harcourt at the sidelines of the unveiling of multipurpose air-conditioned Bob Tractors.
According to the Rwandan diplomat, the President of Rwanda has received reports on the versatility of the 120 horsepower Bob Tractors manufactured and assembled in Port Harcourt and adapted to the African weather for mechanized farming.
He therefore specifically directed that top officers of the Rwandan High Commission must be at the unveiling of Bob Tractors that took place on Monday night at the poolside of Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt.
Counsellor Rubagumya explained that the Rwandan Government is taking mechanized agriculture as the tonic for massive food production to feed its people and also export to other countries in East Africa and Europe.
He revealed that his government has been in talks with Ibifiri BobManuel, Managing Director of Bob Tractors Nigeria Limited, manufacturer of the 120 horsepower Bob Tractors.
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony, BobManuel described the tractor as “a multipurpose game changer for mechanized farming and agribusiness. He added that he and his team stayed for five years in America where the 120 horsepower Bob Tractors were designed.
He said they are now manufactured and assembled in Port Harcourt and specifically made for the Nigerian tropical weather and the African terrain.
“Bob Tractors unlike those imported from Europe that develop faults and pack up easily due to overheating because of the ever-hot tropical weather can withstand tough terrain”.
He said: “The newly inaugurated Bob Tractors are the answers and game changers to the need of mechanized farming in Nigeria because it works as Harvester, Planter, bush clearing and so on easily to maintain because the parts are readily available. You don’t need to import the parts from Europe.”
BobManuel described mechanized agriculture as an untapped gold mine waiting to be explored, and more revenue-yielding compared to oil and gas.
“Our crude oil will soon dry up, but our soil and Agriculture will remain forever. There was a period of Nigerian history when we had groundnut pyramids, Cocoa, cotton, hides and skin. The revenue from them sustained our economy”
BobManuel said that with the introduction of Bob Tractors, the era of subsistence agriculture where farmers use cutlasses and Hoes with a lot of manpower on the farm is gone.
At the occasion, Representatives of the Rivers State Government, Manufacturers Association, Nigerian Chambers of Commerce Agriculture and Industry, and NACCIMA, spoke eloquently about the need for governments, corporate bodies, and individuals to focus on agriculture for food security and also because it is a big business.