In this exclusive interview with Abdallah el-Kurebe, the Editor-in-Chief of ASHENEWS, the President of the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN), Arc. Kabir Ibrahim shares his expert views on the current state of agribusiness in Nigeria. He discusses critical aspects such as food production, value addition, policy reforms, investment mobilization, and youth engagement in the sector. Arc. Ibrahim also outlines the major challenges facing agribusiness players today and suggests strategic solutions to drive growth and ensure food security across the country. EXCERPTS:
How would you assess the current state of agribusiness in Nigeria, particularly in terms of food production, value addition, and exports?
Agribusiness is rapidly gaining traction, but it faces the same challenges as agriculture. Agribusiness will thrive only if there is sustainable production, processing, distribution, and consumption. All these aspects depend on reliable farm input supply, steady energy supply, and improved purchasing power of the populace. Agribusiness does not prosper when it is limited to exporting agricultural produce in its primary or raw form without value addition.
What specific policy interventions or reforms do you believe are most critical for strengthening agribusiness and ensuring food security in Nigeria?
The agricultural ecosystem has no shortage of policies, but poor implementation or a lack of follow-through is the major impediment. The Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) has launched a Policy Implementation Analysis Fund (PIAF) to ensure policies are tracked, appraised, and reappraised for efficacy and implementation. We have worked on and validated three policies: the Dairy Policy, the Tomato Policy, and the Standardization and Grading Policy. We submitted these documents to Mr. President and hope they will be implemented. This was done during the Presidential Round Table (PRT) convened earlier this year.
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The NABG is positioned as the voice of private sector agribusiness. How is the Group mobilizing investments, partnerships, and innovations to boost productivity and competitiveness?
The NABG continually advocates to popularize agribusiness by collaborating with processors, farmers, and financial institutions. We have trained women and youth across the six geopolitical zones through our flagship program called WYFARC. The champions from this group are now conducting train-the-trainer programs around Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. This is ongoing work, and we are hopeful it will make agribusiness more attractive to all farmers, especially youth.
With Nigeria’s youthful population, what strategies should be adopted to attract more young people into agribusiness, especially through technology, innovation, and climate-smart agriculture?
Agribusiness will definitely become very popular if AgriTech, innovation, IT, and AI are deployed to scale agricultural productivity for Nigeria’s large youth population. It will become more efficient with less drudgery and therefore more appealing to youth who have been seeking gainful employment. This will enable them to be sustainable and competitive even before they start raising families. Youth will realize that the private sector is the engine room of economic growth, and agribusiness is the greatest enabler now that oil has nearly lost its central role in Nigeria’s economy.
What are the major challenges facing agribusiness players in Nigeria today, such as financing, insecurity, or infrastructure, and what concrete steps should be taken to address them?
The threat factors of insecurity, low mechanization, unreliable energy supply, expensive transport systems, and difficult access to credit or financing equally affect both agriculture and agribusiness. Farmers and all Nigerians need to collaborate with both government and the private sector to stem insecurity; otherwise, the entire food system will collapse. When security is restored around Nigeria’s food baskets, other challenges—such as climate change, low mechanization, access to credit, and the use of innovation, technology, and climate-smart agriculture—will become easier to manage. Youth should be encouraged to use IT and AI as non-kinetic means to combat insecurity.
