‘Nigeria can Earn $200m, Create 2 million Jobs Annually from Agro Commodity Expansion Project’

Gilbert Ekugbe

The National President of the Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN), Dr. Victor Iyama, has said that Nigeria could earn over $200 million (94 billion) yearly from the Agricultural Commodity Value Chain Expansion Project (ACVEP).

Iyama also added that the project would benefit the agricultural sector by creating over two million jobs for young Nigerians in the areas of logistics, processing, supply chain management, agriculture extension services, and establishment of new agriculture produce aggregation centre when fully operational.

In a chat with newsmen, he stated that the project covered insurance, transportation and health and could take Nigerians out of poverty.
“It is about food security, sufficiency and can take care of our foreign exchange earnings. Three commodities alone can earn the country more revenues than oil,” Iyamu said.

On his part, the President of the Information Marketing and Management Institute (IMMI), Mr. Ekenechukwu Aloefuna, said the project was conceived to expand commodity trade through the implementation of agricultural research outputs, innovative best practices and multiple channel financing.

According to him, the project would strengthen the deployment of digital innovations in creating farmers’ databases, farm mapping, space technology-based farm monitoring, forecast reporting, flood and environmental impact mitigation.

ACVEP is an initiative of the IMMI in collaboration with FACAN to build strategic synergy with innovations and technologies for the transformation of Nigeria’s agricultural commodity sector.