NACCIMA, Others to Discuss Agriculture as Engine for Economic Growth

By Bennett Oghifo

Experts will congregate in Abuja at a summit to discuss, among other things, how agriculture can be utilised as an engine for economic growth and job creation through innovative business models, risk mitigating strategies, new technologies and strategic partnerships.

The national Agri-Agro summit, facilitated by Kunoch Limited, endorsed and supported by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD), will hold at the International Conference Center, Abuja, between Wednesday, November 27 and Friday, November 29, this year, according to a statement by the organisers.

The summit is being organised by the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) in conjunction with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC).

As part of the summit build up, several embassies had shown interest in some areas of agricultural produce base on areas of competitiveness and comparative advantages. In that same vein, The Brazilian embassy in Lagos played a host to the first breakfast meeting held at the prestigious Eko Hotel and suites on 12th September 2017 followed by the Indonesians on 28th September 2017 at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.  

In the meantime, a pre-summit event has been arranged to host partners and managing directors of banks.  Tagged “Hosting of Partners and Bank MDs,” this pre-summit event will hold in Lagos on Friday, October 27, 2017. 

The aims of the pre- summit event, among others, are to secure the commitment of all stakeholders in agriculture to the agriculture investment models that shall further enhance the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) with active participation of the financial institutions involved in the agricultural sector, link the APP with other sector policies such as the infrastructure and finance policies as it affects the agriculture space in Nigeria; endorse and validate enabling strategies, structured by NIRSAL for agricultural development in Nigeria based on the APP and also glamorise agriculture as a preferred profession of choice for Nigerians.

According to the organisers, “Our target is to make agriculture an investment of choice for the private sector and a profession of choice for the teaming population of youth in our country.

“The design of the multi-stakeholder Agri-Agro summit events is to set the tone for how agriculture can be utilised as an engine for economic growth and job creation through innovative business models, risk mitigating strategies, new technologies and strategic partnerships.” 

Among others, the summit will focus on how to create a platform for interaction and exchange of ideas between all the stakeholders in the agricultural space, mobilise the entire private sector to tap into the opportunities being presented by the current Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Federal Government and provide a veritable opportunity to the government to share its ERGP as it relates to agriculture with all stakeholders.