BusinessDay’s AgreX summit to hold July 20

BusinessDay annual AgreX summit will hold tomorrow(July 20, 2023) at the Victoria Crown Hotel, Victoria Island in Lagos.

The summit will bring together thought leaders, policy-makers, and industry stakeholders to advance solutions that will fix problems plaguing the country’s agricultural exports.

Akin Sawyerr, co-founder of Agricultural Fresh Produce Growers and Exporters Association of Nigeria (AFGEAN), Alexander Isong, president of Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa, and other experts will lead the discussion at BusinessDay’s 2023 AgreX conference.

Brilliant panellists will facilitate dynamic discussions on the compelling opportunities presented by engaging in agricultural exportation in Nigeria, shedding light on the wealth of advantages, including abundant agricultural resources, growing global demand, profitability, diversification benefits, government support, job creation potential, sustainability advantages, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Strategies, best practices, and success stories that will guide participants on how to tap into the vast potential of agricultural exportation will be delved into, exploring how profitability can increase, how sustainable practices can be established, global markets navigated, and government support leveraged to build a thriving agribusiness ecosystem in Nigeria.

Individuals with cognate experience and outstanding success rates in the focus areas will participate in the discourse on solving export challenges in Nigeria. The audience will get to learn from the insights shared and also interact with the speakers and other participants at the summit.

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Apart from his role at AFGEAN, Sawyerr is also Nigeria’s advisor to Supply Chain & Logistics Group. He has worked with DHL for exports of fresh produce.

His other consulting assignments include the European Union on ECOWAS, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Nigeria, the Rwanda Development Board, British Trade International, DFID, and COLEACP, among others.

In his professional career, he has worked with pharma giants like Glaxo, Pfizer, Bristol -Myers, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Recordati, and several other assignments in the Middle East and West Africa.

He brings a vast experience in the supply chain with specialisation in the cold chain for perishables.

Isong, on the other hand, serves as the chairman of the Cold Chain Logistics Transportation Committee for 12 Northern state governments in Nigeria, – (Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Katsina, Plateau, Jigawa, Sokoto, Bauchi, Benue, Zamfara, Nasarawa, and Benue States) for National Stakeholders committee for Government Promotion and Regulation of Tomato in Nigeria (2017 – till date).

Also expected at the event are Ibrahim Kabiru, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Folorunsho Olayemi, lead consultant and chief executive officer of Sammorf Agro-Consult Limited, amongst others.

Themed ‘From Soil to Global Markets: Accelerating Nigeria’s Agribusiness Transformation’, the conference will be held on the back of recent changes in the country, such as the removal of subsidies.

Nigerians are seeking ways to compete in the global market and earn foreign currency, and agribusiness, particularly agricultural exportation, has become the most lucrative sector in Nigeria.

“Fortunately, we can achieve this by embracing our abundant natural resources and taking charge of refining our produce,” BusinessDay said in a statement.