Nigeria Can Boost Food Production, Curb Inflation with Agro-Industrial Processing Initiatives, Says Wale Edun

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, on Monday argued that with adequate in-country food production, the current high inflation rate will be curbed considerably.

Edun made the comment as the federal government in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) announced a plan to accelerate the phase 1 of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ-1) initiative to boost food production in Nigeria.

The minister spoke in Abuja on the first day of a two-day event to galvanise stakeholders, including Nigerian governors on the SAPZ-1 initiative meant to support the development of high food production areas to supply the domestic food market, create exportable surpluses and capacitate smallholder farmers to take advantage of the market demand created by the scheme.

The SAPZ-1 programme is currently in seven states, namely: Cross-River, Imo, Ogun, Oyo, Kaduna, Kano and Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and is intended to serve as a pilot phase, following which, it would be expanded to all the states of the federation based on the expression of interest by the sub-nationals.

The workshop aimed to deliberate on the existing challenges and forge an accelerated implementation plan to enable Nigeria achieve its food security agenda. The strategic focus is to set modalities for increased production of cassava, rice, maize, cocoa, tomatoes, and livestock amongst the designated SAPZ priority crops.

At the event, Edun restated that President Bola Tinubu’s aim was to industrialise the country, ensure domestic production, seek value-added growth, create jobs and reduce poverty.

“We heard about the huge food import bill, and we are currently in a situation where we are having to look at a stopgap importation in the very short term, although it’s being very carefully choreographed to ensure that we do not destroy the incentives, and we do not disrupt domestic production, domestic farming, and domestic milling and food processing.

“But we need to produce enough food. The Minister for Agriculture and his team, and AfDB, as well as the Ministry of Finance meet daily currently, to ensure that the remainder of the wet season, which is being extended by climate change, and the dry season harvest, are hugely successful.

“Food is 50 per cent of the consumer price index. In fact, you would say food is part of the core index, but it has sort of become non-core, because it has become variable, become unpredictable.

“But you can imagine, we have inflation of over 30 per cent, but we know it’s coming down, but you can imagine what a real successful food production outcome would do to bring down inflation. That would bring down interest rates, that would strengthen the exchange rate, and it would enable a basis for the private sector to invest even more because it would become affordable to borrow.

“So it is on the basis of successful production that we can now look at exports, that we can now look at the support to the trade balance, support to the foreign exchange reserves that agriculture can and does mean,” he stated.

Also speaking, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said the current phase wasn’t without its challenges, ranging from constraints in project execution, delays in approval processes and procurement issues across various financiers.

According to him, the objective of the two-day workshop was to deliberate on the existing challenges and forge an accelerated implementation plan that will enable stakeholders achieve the president’s food security agenda.

“The potential economic benefits of SAPZ programme acceleration, amongst others, will include some additional metric tons of food to the nation’s food basket, 500,000 direct and indirect jobs to be created within the programme operations for project location and about 2.5 million temporary jobs to be created along infrastructure development and related services.

“By design, the SAPZ will improve the yield of our staples from 5 to 10 per cent to about 50 per cent to 100 per cent increase and reduce post-harvest losses from 45 per cent to 20 per cent,” he pointed out.

He added that the SAPZ programme was central to the agenda of Tinubu on food security, agro-industrialisation and inclusive economic growth.

The total cost for the SAPZ Program (Phase I) is estimated at $538.05 million net of taxes. The AfDB will provide a Loan of $160 million (29.7 per cent of total cost) together with an Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) loan of $50 million (9.3 per cent).

Also, the IsDB and IFAD will provide parallel co-financing of $150 million (27.9 per cent) and $100 million (18.6 per cent), respectively. Additional resources ($60 million, 11.1 per cent) will be mobilised through the Green Climate Fund (GCF) by IFAD from the IGREENFIN initiative. The federal and state governments will contribute $18.05 million (3.4 per cent) both cash and in kind.

In his comments, the IFAD Country Director, Dede Ekoue listed the key actions to consider to include strengthening coordination at all levels, bolstering technical capacity with additional seasoned experts, addressing financial incentives, and continuing to ensure highly competitive recruitment to attract the best resource persons for this innovative yet complex programme.

Additionally, compliance by all actors with the financial agreement governing the programme’s implementation—particularly regarding fiduciary and human resource matters, Ekoue said, must be ensured.

In his speech, Director General of the AfDB, Nigeria Country Department, Dr Abdul Kamara , said the dialogue aimed at strengthening coordination among all key stakeholders, including the private sector to share ideas and lessons learned so far from the implementation of the programme.

“In phase one, we are financing with $538 million,” he said, stressing that the programme has four core components, namely support to the development of climate adapted infrastructure, improving agricultural productivity, job creation, and employment and improving livelihoods.

Despite the recent progress of implementation, he said there was still room for improvement, explaining that there was the need to speed up the programme.

Emmanuel Addeh

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