As
Nigeria celebrates 54 years of independence, a lot of people, especially the
nation’s youths, are voicing their discontentment and showing disinterestedness
in the goings on. they are turning their backs to the activities. A lot of them seem disillusioned, having experienced
shattered dreams over the years. The one burning question in their heart is:
What’s the difference between the 54th anniversary and the 10th,
15th, or any other anniversary for that matter? What hope is there
for us in this country? Partly, this is not their fault, for selfishness and
greed had destroyed Nigeria’s economy over the years. Different governments and
regimes came and went with no other impact than empty treasuries and plenty
empty promises. Indeed, Nigerians and a lot of others in the world are
wondering why a big brother like us would not live up to our name, the so-called
Giant of Africa.
Well, if
you are one of those who wonder and think this way even for the present
Nigeria, I’ll advise you to keep reading. This write up offers some insights. And
it explains why and how things are beginning to change. Many national and
international stakeholders are recently becoming optimistic that with the
Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) on course, the sector (and alas, the
nation) is facing its greatest success since the discovery of oil. How, you may
ask.
The Annual Agricultural Performance Survey
carried out by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services
(NAERLS), Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria, in collaboration with several national research institutes and the
Federal Department of Extension has provided several indices/statistics
indicating tremendous improvement/growth in the nation’s agricultural sector. The
reality of agricultural performances in the field is indeed a pointer to the
youths that there is a brighter future for those who will embrace farming as
business!
You will recall that prior to the 1960s, the nation’s agriculture sector
was not only vibrant but was a major source of generating income and
subsequently a major contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP). It was a
platform for poverty alleviation, job creation and provided most of the foreign
exchange through the farming of cocoa, groundnuts, cotton and palm produce
among several others which was used to develop and create various infrastructures
in the nation.
But the
discovery of oil in the 1960s led to a total neglect of the sector, while
investors rushed to partake of the national cake, leaving agriculture to the
very few who practised at a subsistence level. This neglect made agriculture to
become poorly funded and practised at a subsistence level. Farmers suffered
severe postharvest loss, it became unattractive to youths and generally non
profitable for investors and funding managers.
Now, 54
years after and with the knowledge that oil cannot last beyond three decades, the
Federal Government, through the minister of agriculture and rural development,
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, set up the ATA with the aim of making agriculture more
attractive to not just the ageing farmers but youths through the setting up of
the Nagropreneur in 2012.
Today,
ATA has successfully registered over 14 million farmers in its database to
benefit from the growth enhancement scheme (GES). Hear our honourable minister:
We developed Nigeria’s
first ever database of farmers so we can identify farmers and manage farmers
identity. Over 14.5 million farmers have been registered in the past three
years. Nigeria is the first country in Africa to do this and the farmers are
being migrated into the national e-identity card system which allows the use of
their biometric information to effectively target them and open them up for financial
inclusion.
The federal government has also alluded to ending four decades of
fertiliser sector corruption within 90 days, and with it the era of government
buying and distributing seeds and fertilisers. It has been replaced with a
private sector-driven system with the role of government shifting to providing
targeted farm support directly to farmers for seeds and fertilisers via
electronic coupons on mobile phones or “e-wallets.”Between 2012 and 2014, more
than 12 million farmers received subsidized farm inputs using electronic
vouchers on their mobile phones to directly pay private sector input retailers.
To further enable the private sector seed companies to develop, the
Federal Government has ended government monopoly over foundation seeds and
opened it all up to the private sector, so that the number of seed companies in
Nigeria rose from 5 to 80 within three years, while multinational seed
companies have begun to invest in Nigeria, including Syngenta and Dupont, two
of the largest seed companies in the world, as demand for seeds has far
outstripped supply. Private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing have
also expanded with $5 billion of private sector investments in fertilizer
manufacturing between 2011 and 2014.
The sector has also witnessed a revival as the share of total bank
lending expanded from about 2% in 2011 to 6% in 2014. Bank lending to seed
companies and agro-input dealers expanded from $10 million in 2012 to $63
million in 2014; while bank lending to fertilizer companies expanded from $100
million in 2012 to $500 million in 2014.
The
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also designed and launched a $100
million private equity fund, the Fund for Agricultural Financing in Nigeria
(FAFIN). This was done jointly with the German Government and the Nigerian
Sovereign Investment Authority with an initial capitalisation of $33 million.
Managed by private sector fund managers, FAFIN is providing equity and
quasi-equity long term financing for Nigerian agribusinesses across the value
chain.
So tell
me. Should we be asking whether there is hope for the Nigerian youths? Shouldn’t
we be asking, instead, how to key into this coaster roller of transformation
(ATA) and become as successful as possible? So, the question is not what hope,
but how to take the opportunities offered by ATA; how to charge into the
doorway presented by ATA for all Nigerians. Don’t wait, ask for information. Remember,
information is power. Without it you will continue to grope in the dark.
You need
info: contact NAERLS, ABU Zaria. Log on to www.naerls.gov.ng
and see what opportunities lie ahead of you.
