For Nigeria to fully take advantage of its agricultural value chain opportunities and create jobs for its teaming youth population, it must first stimulate local demand, enforce quality and continue to improve the business climate, experts say.
The experts who spoke at the First Bank 2019 Agric Expo with the theme ‘Agricultural Value Chain: Spotlighting Opportunities and Managing Risks’ said that the ability of the country to drive local consumption of agro produce without necessarily placing a ban on food imports will enable Nigeria stimulate economic growth and reach its target of diversification.
“We need to look for ways to stimulate local demand, create standards and enforce quality while we continue to improve our business climate if we are to fully harness our agric value chains opportunities,” Babaunde Shodipe, senior manager-export development financing, African Export-Import Bank said in his keynote address.
“We need to adopt the Brazil coffee model and the Egyptian cotton model to grow our agricultural commodity value chains. We need to create markets that can sustain the industry for decades,” Shodipe who is representing Ben Oramah, president and chairman – board of directors, African Export- Import Bank.
He called on financial institutions in the country to explore innovative financial tools to support the sector with adequate finance.
He stated that the greatest opportunities in the agricultural value chains lies in the value chain that is closer to the final consumer, saying the higher the value chain the lesser the investor is affected by price volatility of the commodity.
“Processing to retailing accounts for 80 percent of the profits in the agricultural value chain,” he said.
Brazil was able to grow its coffee industry and become top global producers of the crop owing to its ability to spur local consumption of the produce.
Speaking also at the Agric Expo, Adesola Adeduntan, CEO of First Ban of Nigeria Limited identified policy flip flop and low understanding of the sector by the banking industry as some of the risks associated with financing the sector.
“We have found out that policy has not been sustained because the support for agric is not short term but long term and this becomes a challenge when the policies are not sustained,” Adeduntan said.
Mohammed Sabo Nanono, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in his goodwill message said that the country cannot grow its agricultural value chains sustainably without reviving the agro-allied industries.
Nanono added that development in the sector cannot be done without investments in research. This he stated that his administration intends to change in the next four years.
“We cannot develop agriculture if the research institutes are not adequately funded. This is what I intend to change as the minister of agric,” he said.
Josephine Okojie
