The Federal Government on Friday, September 12, 2025, announced an ambitious plan to transform the nation’s 417 grazing reserves into mini-towns equipped with modern amenities, in a bid to strengthen the livestock sector and reduce herder–farmer conflicts across Nigeria.
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha, disclosed this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
Under the agreement, the REA will provide solar-powered grids to rehabilitated grazing reserves, ensuring steady power supply for communities that will be resettled within them. Vanguard reported.
Maiha lamented that most of the grazing reserves had been abandoned for decades, a situation that left the livestock sector underdeveloped and worsened tensions caused by the constant migration of herders.
According to him, the renewed plan, tagged the Renewed Hope Livestock Village model, will provide herders and pastoralists with essential social amenities and reduce the pressure on open grazing.
“Since coming on board, this ministry has toured the 417 grazing reserves across the country. We have engaged with pastoral communities, traditional rulers, and business leaders, and we have realized that nomadic grazing is no longer sustainable,” Maiha said.
He noted that the reserves will be modernized with schools, healthcare centres, veterinary clinics, earth dams, markets, abattoirs, and road networks to improve the quality of life for herders and their families.
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He added that solar grids would be rolled out to selected pilot sites, including Wawazangi in Gombe State, Wasem in Plateau State, Gongoshin in Adamawa State, and Ka’u in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory. These locations, he said, will serve as test cases for the nationwide rehabilitation project.
The Minister stressed that the initiative goes beyond cattle herding, as other livestock value chains such as piggery, goat and sheep rearing will also benefit. “Millions of pastoralists and animal keepers will be impacted by this project, whether they are in the reserves or operating outside them,” he added.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, described the partnership as a “marriage of convenience” between the agency and the new Ministry of Livestock Development.
He explained that the REA had developed several sector-focused programmes, including Energizing Education and Energizing Agriculture, and that the livestock sector presented a unique opportunity for renewable energy deployment.
Aliyu said, “If you have a grazing reserve that has healthcare, schools, abattoirs, and markets, that is exactly the kind of cluster that the REA can energize with infrastructure. This MoU marks the beginning of that process.”
The rehabilitation will be carried out in phases, starting with the identified pilot reserves. The Federal Government emphasized that lessons from the pilot phase will guide the rollout across all 417 reserves, ensuring the model can be adapted to the diverse needs of pastoral communities nationwide.
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Image Credit: Business Day
