Nigeria: Private sector
investment in agriculture hits $5.6b in four years
Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr.
Akinwumi Adesina on Monday in Abuja launched the Agricultural Transformation
Agenda Policy Working Group and confirmed that the Federal Government has
attracted $5.6 billion investment from the private sector to agriculture in
four years.
He said the government had developed the agricultural value chains
in other to promote the investments and will continue to develop innovative
policies and institutions that will expand opportunities for the private
sector.
The minister said the group will document the agricultural
policies of the government and institutionalize it.
He said: “The private sector has woken up to see agriculture as
the new wealth sector. Between 2011 and 2014, the agriculture sector attracted
over $5.6 billion of private sector investments.
“Private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing have
also expanded, with $5 billion of private sector investments in fertilizer
manufacturing within the past three years.
“To drive this new approach, we decided to focus on
promoting investments and development of agricultural value chains. Not only
would we produce more food, we would add value to all the commodities, all
across the agricultural value chains.”
According to the minister, government must boldly support their
farmers through sustainable and subsidized subsidies.
“Nigeria cannot become a museum of poverty. Poverty is not
tradable and is not an industry, so we must not grow poverty.
“What is important is to develop ways of effectively
targeting support to reach farmers, while ensuring that the private sector, not
the government, delivers farm inputs to farmers,” the minister said.
Dr. Akinwumi added that the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing
System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
has reduced the risk in banks’ lending for farmers and increased the lending
rate to farmers.
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