‘Nigeria loses $10bn annually for neglecting agric sector’ Agriculture Osibanjo
The bank’s Senior Agric Economist, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, dropped the hint on Thursday in his key note address at Sterling Bank’s agriculture summit in Abuja.
For abandoning agriculture, the World Bank official noted that Nigeria now ranks as one of the largest food importers in the world. He went on to state that “each time we spend money to import rice, Nigerian local rice farmers are negatively affected in terms of morale, sales, and realisable income.” “This problem has greatly affected her quest for improved quality of life for Nigerians. Nigeria has huge agricultural potential evidenced by an arable land potential of 98 million ha, out of which 74 million ha is cultivatable. Sadly, till to-date, Nigeria’s agricultural potential remains untapped. Only 34 million ha is currently being cultivated for agricultural uses.
Oredipe, however, called for the overhauling of policies by articulating a clear vision to “achieve a hunger-free Nigeria, through an agricultural sector that drives income growth, accelerates achievement of food and nutritional security, generates employment and transforms Nigeria into a leading player in global food markets”.
The bank’s Managing Director, Abubakar Suleiman, told the audience that Sterling Bank has committed over N55 billion financial support to agricultural sector in the last seven years.
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