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Nigeria attracts $4bn agric investments in two years — Minister

By on December 21, 2014

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has attracted $4bn private sector investments in agriculture in the last two years.

Adesina, who stated this in Abuja on Friday, faulted a statement credited to a former Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Adamu Bello, on the achievements of the administration in the sector.

The minister, in an electronic mail by his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, said many Nigerians had commended his achievements.

Bello, last week, was reported to have faulted the successes said to have been recorded under Adesina’s tenure.

But Oyeleye said that Adesina’s administration under two years attracted $4bn of private sector investments in agriculture.

Oyeleye stated, “It will help greatly for Adamu Bello to point to the number of investments generated in seven years, whereas, within two years, under Adesina, Nigeria has attracted $4bn in private sector investments in the agricultural sector.”

He challenged the former minister to give details of his achievements commodity-by-commodity to tell Nigerians his impact.

Oyeleye explained that some critical minds in the Nigerian economy had publicly commended Adesina’s contributions to the growth of the agricultural sector.

He stated that a well-known public affairs analyst like Prof. Pat Utomi had commended efforts made by the government to block leakages “in farmers’ access to fertilizers and provision of information to farmers by making available handsets to farmers across the country.”

Oyeleke said that Adesina was content with the fact that those who had benefited from the positive impact of the minister’s intervention had come out to defend him.

According to him, the Chairman of Umza Rice and Chairman, Rice Processors Association, Mohammed Abubakar, has publicly acknowledged that the administration created incentives for seed and fertilizer companies.

The companies have developed supply chains to reach farmers directly in the country.

The minister’s aide added that Adesina attracted $5bn worth of investments by the private sector into local fertilizer manufacturing.

Oyeleye also commended a frontline media practitioner and Chairman of 3D Global Leadership, Dr. Victor Oladokun, for faulting Bello’s claim.

The minister’s aide quoted Oladokun as saying that “Adesina ended the corrupt, crony-driven fertilizer racket that helped serve the interest of the rich and the politically powerful, and turned farmers into paupers.

“The farmers know better. Their fertilizer was hijacked and ‘shared’ by the elite. So shady was the direct fertilizer procurement system that Nigeria was known to have one of the worst cases of fertilizer corruption in the world. Just ask the millions of farmers who today receive fertilizer directly, without needing middlemen or political cronies.”

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