<p></p><p>THE National Cashew Association of Nigeria has concluded arrangement to acquire cashew processing equipment for its members to strengthen value addition in cashew production. The association’s national spokesperson, Mr Sotonye Anga, gave the assurance on Friday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on arrival from the 2014 International Cashew Summit held in Vietnam.</p> <p>Anga said that cashew processing would boost job creation, wealth creation and revenue generation especially foreign exchange earnings. ``Unless we process and add value to our cashew, we will only be joking because the only way to move ahead in the sub-sector is for government to look at the value chains embedded therein. </p><p>``We must begin to cause a serious development in terms of processing because we need to add value and create employment to improve the economy. ``All these starts with building the right infrastructure that will boost production activity that will stimulate massive economic growth and development. </p><p>``The association is planning to buy cashew processing equipment that will aid the desired development of the entire value chains of cashew,`` he said. The spokesperson urged the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disburse the N10 billion Cashew Intervention Fund. Anga said that the fund would hasten purchase of equipment that would process cashew and reduce post-harvest wastage. </p><p>``All we need to do is to aggressively fund agriculture in Nigeria and diversify the economy from crude oil – which is a non-renewable resource -- to agriculture, which is renewable. ``I want to encourage the new CBN governor to see that the sub-sector gets adequate funding especially the N10 billion cashew intervention fund,`` Anga said. (NAN) </p><p> </p><br><p></p>