Profiling of herdsmen: Miyetti Allah to partner Glo, MTN

Worried by recurrent clashes between herdsmen and farmers in several parts of the country, which has led to the loss of about 6,000 lives, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) is currently processing a database of its members for easier identification of pastoralists across the country.

Baba Othman Ngelzarma, the secretary of the association informed BusinesDay on the sidelines of a stakeholders forum on farmers/herders conflict that the profiling of pastoralists across the country would be in partnerships with two telecoms firms, Glo and MTN.

This Ngelzarma said, would ensure proper identification of pastoralists and help in identification of any stranger that portrays the association in  bad light.

Ngelzarma informed BusinessDay that,”This is one of the initiatives for better identification our members. We had already held a one-day retreat with MTN in Kaduna on how to begin cattle monitoring identification and inserting embedded chips into the cattle for monitoring and identification.”

He added:”We are also trying to engage Glo’ in trying to engage ways of trying to register and capture our members through biometric.This would help us to distinguish between the resident pastoralists and others that come in and go out of the country.

“Along the line, we will introduce some customised phones for our members for use, in order for them to be captured, so that that may help us distinguish between the pastoralists,  herdsmen that come in and go out from the country, Ngelzarma explained.

“We would do our best and ensure that we achieve this before the end of the year, as capacity building is already ongoing in this regard, he added.

He further informed BusinessDay of the association’s plan to empower its  members through the support of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to assist pastoralists to grow their respective businesses.

He said,”We are pursuing a programme with NIRSAL on how to empower our members.NIRSAL is also collaborating with DFID on our behalf and we are working our a model on how we could give ‘cattle fattening loans’  to pastoralist to sustain and expand their their business.

“In a week’s time, we would commence a pilot programme in Adamawa State to that effect,”he added.

Recall that the Nigerian government has revealed plans to hold a national conference to address the recurrent farmers’ and herdsmen clashes in several parts of the country, in a bid to finding a lasting solution to the persistent conflicts, while ensuring that the farmers and pastoralists contribute meaningfully to the economy.

 

HARRISON EDEH, Abuja