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OXFAM questions transparency in Nigeria’s agric sector

By BusinessNews Staff on May 9, 2014

A research conducted by OXFAM Nigeria, an International Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) committed to ensuring food security, has questioned transparency in the country’s agricultural spending.

OXFAM also alleged that less than two per cent of the population of Nigerian farmers benefited from the federal government’s Growth Enhancement Strategy (GES) scheme, and queried the authenticity of the huge figures claimed to have benefited from the federal government lagesse.

The Campaign Manager of OXFAM Nigeria, Tomi Mercy Ademokun, stated this yesterday in Abuja at a media briefing to begin the selection of the 2014 ‘Female Food Hero’ in Abuja.

She explained that only quality and transparent spending in the agriculture sector would drive a huge investment in the nation’s economy.

Ademokun said the GES which tries to simplify the process of redemption of farm inputs by farmers is a good scheme on paper. But stressed: “We have the GES which tries to simplify redemption of farm inputs by farmers, but if you talk about smallholder farmers, many of them have never accessed seeds or fertiliser from the government,” she said.

She also urged the Nigerian government to eliminate gender barrier in accessing land and other basic agricultural resources, adding that effective and mutually acceptable agricultural policy will enhance development in the sector.

Ademokun explained that a research conducted by OXFAM revealed that farmers were not even able to register via the internet link provided by the Ministry of Agriculture. “We have everything that we can think of on the paper, I thank the minister for the initiative but there are a lot of gaps, we are talking about moving from rhetoric to action,” she added.

[This Day]

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