Gilbert Ekugbe

The General Manager, Corporate Affairs TGI Group, Mr. Sadiq Kassim, has lamented the nation’s high import rate of food and agricultural commodities, which currently stands at N3.3 trillion.

Kassim said spending so much on importing food is unsustainable for Nigeria, especially at a time when the country is grappling to earn the much foreign exchange it needs to carry out capital projects for economic growth and development.

He stated this during a panel session at the unveiling of Afrinvest 2023 Nigerian Banking Sector Report in Lagos recently.

He said that Nigeria has the capacity to produce all its food requirements even as he called on the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) to fund the commercialisation of research findings to boost the discovery of new food varieties to meet the ever growing demand for food.

Kassim said: “90 per cent of the food we consume is produced by the smallholder farmers in Nigeria since it was created and that is incontrovertible. Although, the Russian-Ukraine war made nations experience a disruption in their respective food value chains and systems, but we survived. There is capacity to produce food in the country.

“We need to revive all agricultural development initiatives diligently in this country. I am sure we can do this because the N3.3 trillion imports of food or agricultural commodities are not sustainable and we cannot continue with this.”

He, however, stated that the nation’s agricultural sector is growing significantly, but called for more support and funding for the sector to come out of the woods.

He said: “The export figure of agriculture export has risen more than what was happened from 2016 to 2019. In 2016-2019, we exported N800 million, but in 2022, we did more than N500 billion export of agricultural commodity which is more than what has been done in the previous years.

“53 per cent of our youths are unemployed and for me that is a great labour availability in the agricultural sector and there are only 37 per cent of women which means we are excluding half of the population from agriculture.”

“53 per cent of our youths are unemployed and for me that is a great labour availability in the agricultural sector and there are only 37 per cent of women which means we are excluding half of the population from agriculture.”

What is Tinubu government doing to close the gap of percentage of unemployed youths in Nigeria 🇳🇬 . No solution in sight yet. It’s the presidential yacht 🛥 and the over 100 million naira suvs 🚙 for our lawmakers that is very important now. So so unfortunate seriously. Their democracy is for the rich by the rich and of the rich.

Insteal of mills we invest in jeeps and expect things to happen. Witchcraft at national level.

Politicstoday:

“53 per cent of our youths are unemployed and for me that is a great labour availability in the agricultural sector and there are only 37 per cent of women which means we are excluding half of the population from agriculture.”

What is Tinubu government doing to close the gap of percentage of unemployed youths in Nigeria 🇳🇬 . No solution in sight yet. It’s the presidential yacht 🛥 and the over 100 million naira suvs 🚙 for our lawmakers that is very important now. So so unfortunate seriously. Their democracy is for the rich by the rich and of the rich.

go ask any youth if they want to work on farms....

all they care about is to yanga around and play too smart....

Mad Country

a crazy trend now is thinkin you can earn money online without gettin your hands dirty....

tsdarkside:


go ask any youth if they want to work on farms....

all they care about is to yanga around and play too smart....

Nigeria youths still want to work in the farm but the Nigeria leaders at the helm of affairs are destroying things for them. Bandits have taken over and no solution in sight. Besides Agricultural sector is a big sector Nigeria government should focus on but our government isn’t doing that. They preferred to focus on Crude oil than Agriculture.

Nigeria is a country with a lot of hyperboles:

A lot of crude oil but still importing refined crude oil,A lot of arable land but still one of the most import dependent food countries,A lot of schools but still can't figure out how to solve basic problems
I have this funny theory,if government wants to solve the problem of feeding and increase local production of food they need to work with our religious organizations
Imagine if government worked with religious organizations on agricultural projects around the country
Government can provide the infrastructure such as Land,road, security and farm settlements.The Religious organizations will speak to their congregations to take up the challenge of working on those farm settlements,most people already work for free in this places anyway
Imagine having organisations like our churches and Islamic organisations having multiple farm settlements where food is being harvested and sold
I can guarantee that Labour won't be a problem,as most people have more respect for their religious bodies than even their state governments
Kindly click on the following for cheap properties around the Ibeju Lekki Industrial Hub:
https://www.nairaland.com/7905580/introducing-silvergate-estate-ibeju-lekki

Food inflation, insecurity and insufficiency everywhere but government choose to sustain a propaganda that all is well with a fake anchor-borrowers programme that is only a conduit pipe for monumental wastage & corruption

Politicstoday:
Nigeria youths still want to work in the farm but the Nigeria leaders at the helm of affairs are destroying things for them. Bandits have taken over and no solution in sight. Besides Agricultural sector is a big sector Nigeria government should focus on but our government isn’t doing that. They preferred to focus on Crude oil than Agriculture.

Crude oil is money for lazy people....

tsdarkside:


Crude oil is money for lazy people....

yes it makes them to be lazy and not diversify

GIVE THE FOOD ORDERS TO DANGOTE TO PAY FOR, DISTRIBUTE AND SELL TO NIGERIA.