Federal Government is targeting five million jobs from its “Green Imperatives”, an agricultural initiative launched on Thursday by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, to be funded with $1.1 billion loan from Brazil.
Osinbajo described the project as “signature-focused” and “a game changer”, as the project will lead to mechanised agricultural revolution.
“We cannot bring our nation out of poverty without investment in agriculture. Also, the sheer number of young people coming of age will not only need to be fed but employed. They want dignified jobs with decent pay,” Osinbajo said.
“Today, we are producing paddy rice as much as we need because of mechanisation of agriculture. The only way to make the quantum leap required in our economy is what we are doing today with this project, the Green Imperative,” he said.
One of the reasons young people don’t warm up to agriculture is because it is not mechanized, Osinbajo said, promising that the project would change all of that.
“We have made a significant difference in creating food sufficiency and decent jobs. We have ensured that this will be private sector-driven,” he said.
The Brazilian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ricardo Guerra de Araujo, said his country was ready to assist Nigeria create centres that will assemble 10,000 tractors annually.
He revealed that the country will also create 707 centres to train not less than 10,000 Nigerian farmers, mostly youths, to encourage farming in the country.
“It has become imperative to make agriculture attractive to young farmers since this is the only way to develop human capital. The truth is that agriculture has the potential to create jobs for millions, support small scale farmers to actualise their potential,” he said.
The ambassador also called on the Nigerian government to urgently work hard to halt the challenge of post-harvest losses estimated at billions of naira.
Zainab Ahmed, minister of Finance, said Nigeria secured a total loan package of $1.1 billion majorly from the Brazilian Government which will be disbursed in four tranches over a period of two years.
“It is pertinent to state here that greater percentage of the loan will be provided in kind through the supply of agricultural machineries and implements in form of Completely Knocked Down (CKD) parts. This arrangement is expected to reduce fiduciary risks and create more employment opportunities for our teeming youth and those that will be involved in assembling the machineries and implements,” Ahmed said.
The initiative, according to her, will be purely private sector-led in all its operations, including the assembling of the machineries/ implements, operation of the service centres and the agro-processing centres. She said the project will be implemented in all the 774 local government areas of the country in phases.
The initiative is part of the Federal Government’s plans to mitigate key agricultural gaps, including the inability to meet domestic food requirements and Nigeria’s inability to satisfy growing export demands in terms of quantity and quality.
The country is challenged by her input system, hampered by farming models that are largely inefficient, poor seedlings, lack of adequate fertiliser input, poor irrigation system as well as absence of crop protection.
The project is also aimed at tapping from the successful experience of Brazil in agriculture to improve agriculture as the two countries are said to possess similar environmental conditions.
The programme is expected to, amongst other things, entail the introduction of advanced Brazilian Agricultural Equipment (ABIMAQ) and the establishment of training centres for Nigerian farmers across the country to boost agriculture, which contributed about 39 percent to the Gross National Product in 2017 and employs no less than 80 percent of the labour force.
“With Brazilian support we will get to where we want to get to. Importation alone does not make a country great, production does. By importation we also imported poverty and unemployment but this administration is set to reverse all that. Work is prayer in action,” said Audu Ogbeh, minister of Agriculture.
Ogbe assured the Brazilian team that the environment will be friendly and welcoming, adding, “There is nothing wrong in borrowing if you use it well, it is when you waste it that you invite disaster.”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
