President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has given an indication of fresh $4.6 billion dollars investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. The emerging investment scheme will run for five years.
Whereas the key areas of the investment will include sugar, rice, tomatoes and oil palm, he appealed to the government at all levels to rehabilitate and construct feeder roads to facilitate movement of farm produce to markets.
These formed his key presentation at the 6th edition of the 2017 AgrikExpo and NABG Conference in Abuja on Monday.
Represented by Alhaji Mansur Ahmed, the Executive Director, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Communications of Dangote Industries Limited, the industrialist said that rehabilitating rural roads would help to reduce costs of production and prices of goods.
He also said that improving technology in agriculture would guarantee improved inputs (seeds, fertilisers), and also help farmers improve yields.
According to him, if agriculture must succeed in the country, our farmers must be young and active which means that the youth population must be involved.
He averred that “We need to improve human capital in every aspect of the farm value chain.
“There is the need for infrastructure to be in place to enable farmers to transport their produce from farm to markets.”
Dangote further advised state governments to initiate programmes that would promote areas of their comparative and competitive advantages in agriculture to boost food security and assist Federal Government’s agriculture efforts.
