Abuja — Worried by the current state of 'idleness' of agricultural produce warehouses in many states of the federation, the Managing Director, Abuja Security and Commodity Exchange (ASCE), Mr. Yusuf Abdulraheem, yesterday, urged the federal government to involve private sector participation in warehousing management.

Abdulraheem opined that private sector participation in warehousing management would help put the dormant warehouses into productive use, thus, generating income or revenue for both the states and the private investors or companies that would lease out the warehouses.

The ASCE boss who spoke to journalists at a stakeholders forum on, "A Draft Bill On Warehouse Receipt Financing," held at Merit house, Abuja, emphasized: "You have a lot of warehouses in this country, because in the national survey we conducted about two years back, we discovered that there is sufficient quantity, particularly in most states that were operating farmers' supply companies which as of now, don't bring in the chemicals, fertilizers through those companies anymore.

What they do when the contractors supply is that they just move the supplies to the relevant areas and distribute immediately.

"They have a lot of these warehouses which are lying idle. And what we are saying is that if you open them up to private sector participation to provide warehousing to this scheme, the same private sector companies will go to these states and lease these companies, renovate them and provide the service. The companies would make an income and the states would also make some income, but presently, the states are not making any income from these warehouses because they are lying idle there."