Deputy Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, accompanied by the Assistant Secretary of State, Linda Thomas Greenfield, on Wednesday July 8 visited Ideal Agro Allied Services Ltd—a fish and poultry feed manufacturing plant owned by Mandela Washington Fellow Saidat Shonoiki. Founded in 2006, Saidat has gradually expanded her company such that she now employs 14 workers and produces 2,500 large feed bags (30 tons) per month. Saidat is an animal food nutritionist. Her ‘excruded’ (floating) feed product competes with foreign brands from Germany, Israel and elsewhere, such that local farmers feel confident patronizing her products. Saidat’s plant is currently running at full capacity. She is building an agricultural sustainability training center, Green Skills Initiative, with financial support from the World Bank to the tune of N7, 000,000 naira ($35,000).
