In a bid to boost agricultural productivity and reduce poverty, Stanbic IBTC held an agric-tech youth empowerment master-class program for agripreneurs.
The master-class which took place during the Social Media Week held recently in Lagos highlights opportunities in the agricultural sector and how new technologies can become solutions to the country’s food security problems.
Experts, who spoke during the master-class, maintained that no strategy of economic reform can succeed without sustained and broad-based agricultural development, which is critical for raising living standards, alleviating poverty, assuring food security, generating a buoyant market for expansion of industry and services and making a substantial contribution to the national economic growth.
To this end, they stressed that the future growth in agriculture must come from new technologies that are not only cost-effective but also in conformity with the natural climatic regime of the country.
These include data improvements for better research, better results, and sustainable planning among others.
Speaking during the programme, Wole Oshin, head of agribusiness, Stanbic IBTC PLC said that the agribusiness value chain is large and represents significant opportunities for agripreneurs.
Oshin defined agriculture as the act and practice of growing crops and rearing of animals while defining agribusiness as businesses that cut across the value chains.
In providing debt and equity financing, he spoke about how the fintech firms are raising funds formally and informally for actors, thereby helping to bridge the financial gap in the sector.
He said that Stanbic IBTC is currently working with some fintech firms to raise more funds for the sector.
He advised the agriprenuers to take advantage of the opportunities that would be created by the proposed establishment of Crop Processing Zones across the country to create wealth and employment.
Osin noted that the bank has come up with a satellite monitoring technology to monitor farmlands, noting that the bank is willing to support any viable agribusiness with adequate finance.
“There is a need for creating structures to tailored agricultural opportunities that emerged,” he said.
Each stage of the agriculture value chain, he explained, has its rewards as well as risks.
Also speaking, Segun Oworu, project leader- digital farming, Bayer Nigeria said that data has become new oil and digitalising the country’s agriculture involves the inclusion of tools and technology to boost productivity.
Oworu stated that the problem with Nigeria’s agriculture is not just to improve productivity but efficiencies along the food systems, saying that the country loses about 60percent of food produced owing to inefficiencies in the food systems.
He identified inadequate access to the market as one of the major challenges limiting productivity in the sector.
Also, Angle Adelaja, consultant to the Ogun State governor and founder of Fresh Direct urged the agriprenuers to always ensure they test, re-test and scale their ideas.
