As the year 2015 curtain draws down, it is very important that I again bring to the front burner Mr. President's call for strategies on how Industries can boast Agric Chain in Nigeria.
Being factual, Nigeria spends about N1.3 trillion yearly on food import. This huge annual expenditure has informed the necessity for a rethink in favour of using the industrial sector to enhance the agricultural value chain through private sector-led strategy which holds promises of reversing the trend. From recent indication and body language of the federal government, we are having a conviction that any strategy, which encourages the involvement of industries in storage, processing and export of agricultural raw materials to create jobs shall enjoy the support of experts as well as the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Efforts at making agriculture more productive, efficient and competitive are on course. This time, the strategy is to find a way of riding on the back of the industrial sector to further enhance the agricultural value chain. Essentially, the new rethink is in favour of encouraging industries to be involved in areas such as storage, processing, and export of finished agric produce to create more jobs for Nigerians.
To this end, experts and stakeholders in the agric and industrial sector are canvassing private sector-led strategy to boost the agric sector and make it a cash-cow for Nigeria. In doing so, they noted, for instance, that Nigeria has huge agricultural potential with over 84 million hectares of arable land, of which only 40 per cent is cultivated. Also, Nigeria’s estimated population of 170 million makes her Africa’s largest market. Besides, the country has some of the richest natural resources. Regrettably, overtime, the country had failed to properly harness these opportunities and derive benefits there from.
However, a new dawn may be in the offing for the sector following renewed emphasis on private sector-led involvement in the agricultural value chain. The strategy is intended to make agriculture more productive, efficient and competitive through improved food production for domestic food supply. It is also hoped that the strategy, which already enjoys the support of President Muhammadu Buhari, would help create more jobs along the agricultural value chain. According to a recent assertion, President Mohammadu Buhari has said that agriculture in Nigeria must cease from being treated as a development programme but as a business.
President Mohammadu Buhari has established that the urgency of unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential is pertinent because Africa spends $35 billion yearly on food import, with Nigeria taking the lion share. The development, he said, boosts the economies of countries and continents where such food items are imported from, leaving African economies depleted. “Africa has no business being a food importing region. With over 65 per cent of the arable land left to feed the expected nine billion people in the world by 2050, Africa should become a net exporter of food,” he said, adding that the size of the agriculture and agri-business sector in Africa is expected to grow to $1trillion by 2030.
President Mohammadu Buhari has also projected that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in agriculture in Africa will increase from $10billion in 2015 to $45billion in 2020.
“To unlock this potential, we need to direct resources, both public and private, to agriculture, the sector which employs close to 80 per cent of Africans and accounts for about 40 per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said -also noting that "a nation that does not feed itself becomes a threat to its sovereign existence".
Growing our own food, processing what we produce, becoming competitive in export markets, and creating jobs all across economy, are crucial for our national security. As Nigeria drives a private sector-led agricultural transformation, government is also paying close attention to potential challenges, such as inequality and impact on small holders. There is therefore need to embrace growth and make it work for farmers and rural communities.
Agri-business, with their huge market pool and demand for raw materials for their factories can unlock the much needed market opportunities that have eluded farmers and expand jobs so crucial for the rising youth population in the rural areas as we have a policy that allows agri-businesses to have secure access to land, working closely with states, local government and communities. Such arrangements allow for transfer of technology, development of infrastructure, creation of market facilities, while unlocking shared prosperity between small holders and large commercial farmers.
Regrettably, we can recall that Nigeria dwindled from being a major player in the global agricultural market in the past as the world’s largest producer of groundnuts and palm oil in the 1960’s, and the second largest producer of cocoa before the emergence of oil in the 1960’s to the current level she cannot boast of anything. “Today, seven of the 10 fastest growing economies of the world are in Africa".
But there exists a paradox. The growth is not inclusive, as hundreds of millions only hear about the growth numbers, but feel alienated from the growth process. Africa’s rural economies harbour the greatest share of those being left behind or excluded.
Therefore, there is need for a new growth model in Africa, one that will stimulate shared prosperity, create jobs for millions of rural youth and unlock the huge sleeping potentials of Africa’s vast agricultural lands. President Mohammadu Buhari, through the Nigerian Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture -NACCIMA has urged experts in the field to come up with recommendations for the government.
In my capacity as the President of NACCIMA, I have often called for enhanced productive economic activities that would bring about growth and development, improved GDP and by implication, enhance the nation’s domestic and foreign exchange earnings as well as more clout for the country in the comity of nations.
I have also called for a sustained growth and development in all areas of the economy where everyone would have equal opportunity to contribute his quota, and where justice and equity will reign.
I assure everyone of NACCIMA’s support. NACCIMA shall continue to partner the government and other private sector stakeholders with genuine intention to move the economy forward to build a virile nation on the part of sustainable growth and development.
Given to the dwindling crude oil prices in the international market today, it has become exigent that we look inwards and go back to the basics to appreciate the importance of agriculture in the socio-economic development of the nation.
The business community is facing serious challenges. In order to ease these problems and to chart a course for the nation’s sustainable growth and development, we make a clarion call on the various tiers of governments to create conducive environment that will make the economy a private sector driven one. This is a sure way of making our country a prosperous nation that we all will be proud of.
Chief (Dr.) Bassey E. O. Edem -FCA, MFR.
President, NACCIMA.
*In Pix from right: National President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Chief Bassey Edem, Cross River State Deputy Governor Prof. Ivara Esu; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Baba Umar Farouk and first Deputy National President of NACCIMA Iyalode Alaba Lawson at the association’s 55th AGM in Calabar.
