Agriculture is Nigeria’s largest employment sector in 2024 – Report

Analysis by Jobberman Nigeria has revealed that the agricultural sector is the largest employment sector in 2024.

The new report, released in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, revealed that the sector is largely informal, with smallholder farmers constituting about 80 percent of the agricultural labor force and accounting for 90 percent of agricultural produce.

“Growing food shortages have left about 25 million Nigerians food insecure. With a population estimated to reach 400 million by 2050 and aggravating food insecurity, there is an urgent demand on food systems to adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), including adaptation of new technologies and innovations to accelerate sustainable food production,” the report said.

It noted that informality is predominant across agricultural activities like crop production, livestock, and agribusiness/ agro-processing having a high potential for job creation for youth and women.

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It noted that formal organisations primarily produce agricultural inputs, smallholder farmers handle cultivation and middlemen facilitate interactions between formal organizations and local food producers.

However, women’s participation in agriculture is increasing due to government policies and support programmes, but they are often limited to harvesting, food processing, and value-addition roles.

“Young people recognise the potential of the sector but face constraints such as high operational costs and a perceived unfavorable business ecosystem, leading to limited contemporary youth-led businesses, especially in the North,” the report said.

It said that technology adoption holds significant potential for increasing productivity, particularly in large-scale farms and agribusinesses.

GSMA concluded that informal businesses in the agricultural sector face challenges in accessing formal markets due to poor logistics, high transportation costs, lack of access to raw materials, insufficient storage facilities, and multiple informal taxes on farm produce further impeding access to markets and increasing operational costs.