•Agriculture making significant strides under Tinubu’s watch –Bagudu
The Nigeria Country Director, World Bank Group, Dr Ndiame Diop, has called on the Federal Government to infuse structural and economic reforms to transform Nigeria.
Diop spoke at the distinguished personality lecture series of the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ibadan (UI) in Ibadan, yesterday
He said economic transformation to create employment starts with agricultural transformation, adding, “it must be balanced with technological advancement to harness both gains.”
Diop, who spoke on the ripple effect of embracing modernised agricultural practices to maximise land resources, said embracing this economic transformation would reduce both rural and urban poverty, as well as food prices.
He said policymakers should not focus on increasing agricultural productivity alone but must ensure structural transformation.
“Every industrialised nation that started economic transformation like Japan and the United States, prioritised agricultural productivity growth alongside technology.
“The challenges for Nigeria is that productivity remains too small for the size of the population leading to high importation of food worth $10 billion.
“Another is insufficient number of fast growing industries that can absorb the present labour force.
“The Nigeria agriculture sector is, indeed, growing fast but there are no employers at the scale the workforce is growing.
“This is because they are still small in size or employees lack skills in technology advancement.”
Diop commended the Federal Government and its economic team on the reforms so far taken to ensure macro and fiscal stability.
According to him, economic transformation is a long term venture, adding that rigorous monetary and fiscal policies were needed to woo foreign and local investors to invest.
“This is because predictability of the business environment is key to investment,” Diop said.
In his address, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, who was chairman at the occasion, said agriculture was one of the eight agenda of the Renewed Hope Initiative.
He stated that the country was not where it was supposed to be due to past failures, but assured that significant progress had been made to reposition Nigeria.
Senator Bagudu, however, commended President Bola Tinubu’s agricultural policies, noting that the sector had made significant progress under his leadership.
He explained that agriculture’s 1.76 percent growth in Q4 2024, accounting for a 25.59 percent contribution to the 3.84 percent GDP, indicated that Tinubu’s policies and programmes were maturing. “Agriculture’s 1.76 percent growth and 25.59 percent contribution remain vital,” he told the audience, including academics, private sector leaders and government officials, adding, “Q4 2024 GDP results confirm we are on the right path.”
The minister attributed the sector’s appreciable success to the administration’s unwavering policies, which he said prioritised augmented budgetary funding and access to finance, stimulated technological innovation and mechanisation, improved climate resilience, developed infrastructure, fostered public-private partnerships and reinforced security. Specifically, he pointed out that the sector benefited from increased budgetary allocations since the inception of President Tinubu’s administration, rising from N228.4 billion (1.05 percent of the 2023 budget) to N362.94 billion (1.32 percent of the 2024 budget) and finally to N826.5 billion (1.7 percent of the 2025 budget). Bagudu said the N100 billion National Agricultural Development Fund, which Tinubu established in 2023 to address financing challenges in agriculture, and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s donation of 2.15 million bags of fertiliser worth N100 billion to support farmers also enhanced the sector. He told his audience, “Let me emphasise that the agricultural milestones of the last 23 months of the Tinubu administration are far from where we want it to be. However, they indicate our commitment to transforming the sector. The recent establishment of a separate ministry for livestock development signifies the administration’s forward-looking approach to expanding the sector’s frontiers and serves as a game changer for the economy.”
The minister said the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, as the statutory mechanism for coordinating national consensus, will continue encouraging institutional and multi-stakeholders’ synergy. He explained that the ministry would ensure that state technical committees drive subnational-level policy coordination and monitoring, promote public-private partnerships, and mobilise resources through collaborations with agribusinesses, FAO, WFP and others. Bagudu called for collective action among the government, academia, private sector and development partners to turn challenges into opportunities. He added that through the aggressive implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda and the National Development Plan, Nigeria would be transformed into an agricultural powerhouse that feeds its people, powers its economy and competes globally. The distinguished lecturer, Diop, in his lecture titled, “Leveraging agricultural transformation for sustainable economic development in Nigeria: Key considerations,” stated that for the country to enhance its agricultural productivity, enablers such as education and human capital, connectivity and security, access to reliable power, access to finance and cross-border trading must be established. According to him, while economic transformation cannot happen overnight, it can only occur with committed leaders and macroeconomic stability. He disclosed that Nigeria faces a significant demographic shift, with approximately 5.5 million Nigerians entering the labour force yearly. This rapid increase presents a unique opportunity for the country to become an essential economic driver of economic growth in Africa and globally. He added that Nigeria’s economy needs to grow faster and transform. The transformation, he said, must accelerate the movement of workers from low-productivity, low-paying and often informal jobs to more productive and higher-paying positions.
Vice Chancellor, UI, Prof. Kayode Adebowale said the topic, “Leveraging agricultural transformation for sustainable economic development in Nigeria: Key considerations,” was apt and timely.
Adebowale, who was represented by the Dean, Faculty of Science, Prof. Oludayo Sonibare, said that the institution had been at the vanguard of ensuring collaboration between the ‘town’ and ‘gown.’