Shettima Launches $500m Niger Delta Agriculture Fund To Boost Food Security

Vice President Kashim Shettima has launched the $500 million Niger Delta Agricultural Investment Fund, describing it as a laudable development for a nation whose foundation was built on an agrarian economy and whose soil sustained it before the discovery of oil.

He observed that Nigeria cannot afford to take the promise of an agricultural boom for granted, noting that while nations survive on many resources, they endure because they can feed themselves.

According to a statement by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima stated this on Wednesday in Abuja during the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit, jointly convened by the Office of the Vice President and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Agriculture, the Vice President pointed out, is not only the foundation of civilisation but also the first guarantee of political stability, saying: “Before a people raise cities, they must learn to feed them, and before a state earns the loyalty of its citizens, it must secure their daily bread.”

Underscoring the significance of agriculture to Nigeria, he said: “The groundnut pyramids of the North, the cocoa estates of the West, and the palm produce of the East and the Delta financed our earliest schools and hospitals and underwrote the young institutions of a new republic.”

Shettima regretted that the oil boom came with an ease that “dulled the industry of the cutlass”, teaching the country that once fed itself to instead “import what its own soil could grow.”

He, however, applauded the Niger Delta region for the Agricultural Investment Fund Initiative, saying: “What makes this vision inspiring is that it arises from a region that could have rested on its oil wealth and left feeding the nation to other hands.

“The Niger Delta has instead chosen to return to an identity older than crude itself, for the palm oil of these creeks fuelled the commerce of continents long before the first barrel was drilled. It has chosen to transform this region, feed the nation, and attract the world,” he added.

Officially flagging off the fund, the Vice President said: “This is where philosophy must give way to action. The Niger Delta Agricultural Investment Fund of $500 million, which we launch today, is a commercial, returns-driven vehicle spanning the value chain, from aquaculture and palm oil to cassava, cocoa, rice, horticulture, marine resources and livestock.

“Around it, we coordinate the commitments already pledged by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and our private and commercial financiers.

“Above both stands the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Council, which I am honoured to chair, with the NDDC as its Secretariat. Beneath it lies a demand-side strategy preparing bankable projects across all nine mandate states.”

Shettima explained that, upon assumption of office in 2023, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, placed food security among the earliest priorities” of his administration, noting that the decision was driven by the understanding that “nations that lose control of their food eventually surrender control of their future.”

“His July 2023 declaration of a state of emergency shifted our national approach from the boardroom to the ground, across production, market stabilisation, and food access.

“This is why mechanisation has been the centrepiece of the drive, and why the administration launched the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme for 10,000 tractors over five years, alongside local assembly plants, and in parallel with the John Deere Tractorisation Programme, the Greener Hope Project, and the Green Imperative Programme,” he further stated.

The outcomes, the vice president continued, speak for themselves, with the sustained dedication of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, through which he said the administration had seen the prices of several essential food commodities fall by as much as 50 per cent in some cases.

He implored investors, development partners and state governors to treat the summit “as the start of an obligation rather than the end of a ceremony”, emphasising that “the fund is launched, the commitments are aligned, the council is constituted, and the pipeline awaits your conviction.”

Earlier, the minister of regional development, Engr Abubakar Momoh, had said that, due to its potential for job creation and improvement in lives and livelihoods, the current administration placed agriculture at the heart of Nigeria’s economic transformation.

“The national regional development policy recognises the potentials of every region not just in transforming livelihoods but in attracting investments and growth; hence, the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit is particularly significant in transforming the fortunes of youths and women across the Niger Delta,” he stated.

The minister urged the private sector, development partners and other stakeholders to collaborate and work more closely with governments at all levels to achieve the objectives outlined for the transformation of all regions of the country, noting that government alone would not be able to achieve the full transformation of Nigeria’s economy.

In a keynote speech, the Chairman of Origin Group, Prince Samuel Joseph, said the NDDC under the administration of President Tinubu had been reinvigorated and was better positioned to ensure the economic transformation of the Niger Delta region.

He commended the federal government for its renewed commitment towards transforming the Niger Delta through various programmes and initiatives that are continuously unlocking potentials and transforming lives and livelihoods across the region.

For his part, the managing director of the NDDC said the summit was not the end of a conversation but the beginning of a long-term partnership to unlock the agricultural potential of the Niger Delta.

He urged stakeholders in the region to seize the opportunities presented by the summit with purpose, build enduring partnerships, and mobilise investments that create jobs, strengthen food security and grow the economy.

On his part, the chairman of the Governing Board of the NDDC, Mr Chiedu Ebie, said the Niger Delta could not afford to remain a region of untapped promise, noting that the people deserved a future built on productivity, enterprise, dignity and shared prosperity.

He said young people deserved opportunities, farmers deserved access to finance, technology, infrastructure and markets, while communities deserved development that was sustainable, inclusive and measurable.