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Agric sector not performing to capacity – NDDC boss

By BusinessNews Staff on April 15, 2014

THE Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Bassey Dan-Abia, says the Nigeria’s agricultural sector has yet to perform to its capacity.

Dan-Abia said though agriculture had contributed to the nation’s current Gross Domestic Product, which placed the country as the largest economy in Africa, only 50 per cent of the 82 million hectares of arable land in Nigeria had been cultivated.

He spoke during the 18th annual Green River Project and Farmers’ Day celebration organised by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area on Saturday.

The NDDC managing director, who was the chairman of the occasion, pointed out that while the Nigeria’s agriculture output appeared to be underperforming, its peer, Argentina, was improving.

He said, “The agricultural sector used to be the dominant contributor to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product, but it has been diluted as other sectors such as finance, services, construction and entertainment have braced their contribution to the economy.

“This is exemplified by the currently released rebased GDP figure, which shows that the agricultural sector’s contribution is only 21.97 per cent or N17.625tn ($112.26bn) of the total N80.22tn ($510bn) GDP that places Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa.

“Nigeria’s agricultural output, while seemingly impressive, is actually underperforming. Her peers such as Argentine, with its mostly subsistence method of cultivation, is tremendously improving.”

Represented by the Head of Agriculture Department, NDDC, Dr. Godspower Amadi, Dan-Abia made reference to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2012 data, saying, the country was importing over N1.3tn of wheat, rice, sugar and fish every year.

[Punch]

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