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AfDB approves $150m to support agriculture value-chain

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The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved 150 million dollars to support ETC Group’s trade and agriculture value-chain development in Africa.

Mr Amba Mpoke-Bigg, Head, AfDB Communication and External Relations Department made the disclosure in a statement on Saturday, in Abuja.

Mpoke-Bigg said that AfDB’s board of directors had approved 150 million dollars facility to ETC Group Ltd., to address the company’s working capital requirements and support its food production expansion plans across 10 countries in Africa.

According to him, this will be a boost for smallholder farmers.

He said that the investment would be a trade and agri-finance package, comprising 75 million dollars soft commodity finance facility to support the group’s pre and post shipment working capital requirements, with a particular focus on export-oriented activities.

”It also includes a 75 million dollars agriculture value-chain programme to increase agriculture production and productivity, by providing improved agricultural inputs and agronomic advisory services to local farmers,” he said

Mpoke-Bigg said that ETC was a pan-African agriculture conglomerate with footprint expanding across Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia, trading millions of tons in soft commodities.

He noted that the ultimate beneficiaries of this intervention would  include small holder farmers, significant number being women and youth entrepreneurs across 10 African countries, whose productivity was expected to increase from deployment of high-quality agricultural inputs.

On loan, Dr Beth Dunford, AfDB Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development said that working with an African agro-champion like ETC was critical toward achieving the bank’s developmental goal.

Dunford said that the goal was to support millions of small holder farmers across the continent, contribute to increased agriculture production and food security in the process.

Also, Mr Solomon Quaynor, Vice President, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation said that “the Bank’s investment into ETC Group would go a long way in contributing to food import substitution.

Quaynor said that this would be done by allowing ETC to process and package agricultural products locally while increasing value-addition of export-oriented products.

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NBS moves to conduct agricultural census

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As the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) sets to conduct the National Agricultural Sample Census (NASC) after 28 years, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, says it is long overdue.

She spoke on Thursday in Abuja while declaring open a stakeholders’ sensitisation workshop on the importance of the census.

Ahmed said that the agricultural sector was one of the most important in Nigeria as it represents approximately 24 per cent of the economy and engages well over 50 per cent of the workforce, both directly and indirectly.

According to her, the sector is not only vital for economic output and employment purposes, but more importantly, is an essential part of the societal culture.

“The importance of this sector, more than ever before, has been demonstrated by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, through the heavy investments channeled into it since 2015.

“The aim of these investments is to increase output in the entire value chain to meet the nation’s demand for food, employment and export earnings.

“It is as a result of government’s heavy investment and attention to this sector that during the recession brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic and the security challenges being encountered in some parts of the country, the sector consistently recorded positive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers.”

Ahmed, however, said that in spite of the positive results achieved in the sector, a lot more remains to be done as Nigeria’s population continues to increase exponentially, adding that food supply must meet the demand of the growing population.

She also said that the aspirations for a self-sufficient agricultural sector could not be achieved without the use of adequate and reliable statistics.

This, she said, was because the success of policies, plans and programmes could only be achieved with the right data underpinning them, hence the high premium the Federal Government places on quality data.

Mr Simon Harry, the Statistician-General of the Federation, said that agriculture was an essential activity with significant economic and social benefits to the nation.

“It is therefore pertinent that adequate, timely and reliable statistics on the sector are readily available for policy formulation, planning, monitoring and evaluation of progress of programmes and projects.

“Thus, the NASC is designed to produce vital primary data on the structural composition and operations of the sector.

“On completion of the census, the result will also form a statistical framework for the conduct of subsequent agriculture surveys in Nigeria.”

Mr Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said that the census was appropriately timed.

He said that data on various commodities would assist the bank in its policy formulation processes and assessment of impact of its interventions in the sector, financed households and firms.

Represented by Mr Olabintan Adebowale, Emefiele said that the bank had introduced various programmes and schemes to create an ecosystem that ensures the supply of affordable and sustainable finance to various nodes of the sector’s value chain.

According to him, the programmes, which have recorded huge successes, have also helped reduce the nation’s food import bill from 3.40 billion dollars as at 2014 to about 0.59 billion dollars, representing a decline of over 80 per cent.

Mr Pier Mantovani, Engagement Leader for Sustainable Development at the World Bank, said that regular agricultural census was a critical component of national statistical systems.

He said that this was especially in a country like Nigeria that was dependent on agriculture and with so much of the labour force involved in agriculture.

Mantovani said that such exercise was the foundation for fully understanding the state of the agricultural sector to identify better policies to improve productivity and to improve the well-being of the many people whose livelihood depends on agriculture.

“As we know, sadly, Nigeria has been deprived of an agricultural census for almost 30 years and so has lacked or has suffered from a gap of precious information and knowledge to understand this critical sector to drive, to incentivise, to encourage and to development it.

“So, today, the World Bank is proud to support the NBS and the government in finally ending this extended drought of key information through the implementation of the NASC.”

Mr Clem Agba, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, said that the census would be a complete integration of all agricultural activities within the country.

He also said that the NBS was working in collaboration with the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to come up with a comprehensive design and strategy for the conduct of the exercise.

“To this end, a clearly defined timeline has been developed, covering all aspects and distances from the planning stage and the dissemination of results. In addition, a comprehensive communication strategy has been developed.

“This enumeration includes smallholder farmers and large corporations, the smallholder farmers will be canvassed through households while the corporate farmers will be done through the establishment process.

“The scope of information to be collected in this phase include demographic details of the holders, type of agricultural activity, crop production, fishery, poultry, livestock, type of produce and product.”

He added that all the information received would then be processed to form the final output of the census, and be presented in the latter part of 2022.

The last successful NASC was conducted in 1993 while the one conducted in 2014 was declared inconclusive.

However, the FAO recommends that each round of agricultural census should cover a 10-year period.

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Agriculture makes huge contribution to GDP

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said that the Agricultural sector was one of the critical non-oil sectors which made significant contributions to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Buhari said this while declaring open the inauguration ceremony of the CBN’s Nigerian Brown Revolution in Kwall, Bassa Local Government of Area, Plateau.

The president was represented by Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau at the ceremony.

The intervention programme was aimed at enhancing food security, stability and boosting the wheat value chain under the Anchor Borrower Scheme.

“The Agricultural sector was one of the critical non-oil sectors which have made significant contributions to the GDP accounting for a 22.35 and 23.78 per cent.

“This is contribution to the overall GDP in the first and second quarters of 2021 respectively.

“It was also instrumental in supporting the emergence of our economy from the recession in the second half of 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Ensuring food security means ensuring availability and access across all demographics in the country,” he said.

The president stressed that the inauguration was coming at a time the 2021/2022 dry season farming was commencing which he described as significant.

He said food security could not be attained if farmers were not encouraged and adequately equipped with access to the best inputs and opportunities to learn effective agronomic practices for improved yield.

He added that as a country, Nigeria had relied on the proceeds of oil exports for so long with the volatility of oil prices and its implications on foreign reserves.

“There was no other choice but to work towards the diversification of the Nigerian economy by investing in other productive sectors of the economy.”

Earlier the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, represented by his Deputy Governor and Head, Corporate Services, Mr Edward Adamu, noted that wheat was the third most widely consumed grain in Nigeria after maize and rice.

Emefiele said it was estimated that the country only produced about one per cent (63,000 metric tons) of the 5-6 million metric tons of the commodity consumed annually in the country.

“Hence the enormous demand-supply gap is bridged with more than 2 billion dollars spent annually on wheat importation.

He added that the intervention was necessary as wheat was the second highest contributor to the country’s food import bill and given the high growth rate of the country’s population.

He pointed out that the demand for wheat was projected to continue to rise.

The CBN governor lamented that over the years, the availability of low-yielding seeds variety and poor agronomic practices had hampered successful cultivation of wheat in the country.

He added that this had led to low productivity and wheat production unappealing to farmers and the private sector.

He said that the strategy for the wheat value chain involved ensuring availability of high-yield seeds by financing seed multiplication and establishment of seed ripple centre.

Others,Emefiele said were expanding land under cultivation for wheat to a capacity that could meet total national demand.

He said the strategy sought to reduce wheat importation by 60 per cent in two years and ultimately eliminate wheat importation or reduce it to an insignificant contributor to the country’s total food import bill.

Mr Chika Nnwaja, the Deputy Director, and Head, Anchor Borrowers Programme, said there were more than 500 farmers working on the wheat farm.

Nnwaja said that the programme had added value to the local community, created job opportunities and reduced poverty in the local community we operate.

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Seven states, FCT set for phase 1 of special agro-industrial processing zones

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Tanko Mohammed

The Federal Government in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other stakeholders is set to roll out a Special-Agro Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ).

The Programme is aimed at concentrating agro-processing activities in demarcated areas to boost productivity and integrate production, processing and marketing of selected commodities.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo commended the progress in the plan earlier today at a meeting at the Presidential Villa where he was briefed about the status of the collaboration.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Nanono and his counterpart in the Industry, Trade and Investment Ministry, Otunba Niyi Adebayo were also at the meeting.

Under the programme, the Nigerian government, in collaboration with the AfDB and working with other stakeholders such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Bank of Industry, will demarcate areas across the 36 States and the FCT where the agro-processing centres will be established. About 140 of such centers are being envisaged across the country.

The agro-processing centres will be provided with basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and roads as well as facilities for skills training. Small-holder farmers in the catchment areas will be linked to markets across the value chain.

To set off the plan in the opening phase, 7 States representing most of the geo-political zones in the country have been selected in addition to the Federal Capital Territory. The States are Ogun, Oyo, Imo, Cross River, Kano, Kaduna, Kwara. All the other States in the country would be added later as the scheme progresses.

The programme aligns with the Economic Sustainability Plan and the Next Level programme of the Buhari administration regarding agriculture.

Briefing Prof. Osinbajo on the progress made so far in the implementation of the programme, AfDB’s Acting Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Ms Toda Atsuko said the bank in collaboration with other stakeholders was ready to start the first phase of the Special-Agro Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Programme, having completed a joint appraisal mission across the 36 States with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Atsuko who commended the Buhari administration for its efforts said the success of the project is hinged on the political will of the Buhari administration, adding that the plan will create jobs, and leverage on technology with significant youth participation.

“I am very pleased to see that work has advanced and quite a bit is already being done. There is a need to synergize really concretely with Green Imperative (which is the partnership with the Brazilians), I think there are areas where these two programmes can complement each other,” according to the Vice President.

According to him, “I am absolutely certain that we have enough room given the sheer size of the agric enterprise in Nigeria, we have enough room to accommodate these programmes, especially when they are synergized in a way that it will benefit the entire sector.”

Emphasizing the need to also ensure effective synergy with the 36 States, the Vice President said “again, synergy will be crucial with the States because there is no way of getting this thing done without a close collaboration with the States because the States are where these projects will be cited.”

Prof. Osinbajo then commended the efforts of all stakeholders on the project noting that “this is a very good progress that we have made and we must ensure this actually works. Particularly with the collaboration of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.”

Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Nanono welcomed the partnership to establish agro-processing zones across the country, noting that it would be to the benefit of farmers and the agric sector at large.

He also emphasized the need for synergy of ideas and efforts to ensure that the Special-Agro Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Programme complements the Green Imperative initiative of the Buhari administration. 

On his part, Associate Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mr Donal Brown who joined virtually, said the organization would co-finance the project with the AfDB with the view to creating an important opportunity for small-holder farmers in Nigeria to improve their farm yields, enhance their income and livelihoods. Already, IFAD is working with about 150,000 Nigerian small holder farmers.

Besides the Ministers, other officials at the meeting included the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu; the MD/CEO of Bank of Industry, Mr Kayode Pitan; Senior Special Adviser to the AfDB President on Industrialization, Prof Oyebanji Oyeyinka, among other senior officials from the AfDB and IFAD.