LAGOS – The Federal Government yesterday raised concern over Nigeria’s rising food import bill, revealing that the country spends more than $10 billion annually on items such as wheat, rice, sugar, fish and tomato paste, despite its huge agricultural potential.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, who disclosed this at the First Bank of Nigeria Plc 2025 Agric and Export Expo in Lagos, lamented that Nigeria, with 85 million hectares of arable land and a youth population of over 70 per cent under the age of 30, still earns less than $400 million from agro exports.
Kyari, represented by his Special Adviser, Mr. Ibrahim Alkali, said the imbalance highlighted the urgent need for stronger financing and innovative systems to drive agricultural productivity and exports.
“Agriculture contributes 35 per cent to our GDP and employs about the same percentage of our workforce, yet Nigeria accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of global agro exports. To build a non-oil export economy, we must rethink how we finance agriculture,” he said.
He stressed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was committed to achieving food sovereignty, insisting that Nigeria must not only feed itself but do so on its own terms, free from dependency on imports.
“Food sovereignty means ensuring no Nigerian goes hungry due to global supply shocks. Boosting domestic production and supporting exports are two sides of the same coin. We have the land, the labour and the market, but we must fix financing, value addition and infrastructure to turn potential into prosperity,” Kyari said.
The minister urged stakeholders to adopt innovative mechanisms such as forward contracts, performance-linked agricultural goals, and improved revenue-sharing systems, noting that these were already working in other economies.
He emphasised that repositioning the agricultural sector was critical to diversifying the economy, creating jobs and reducing the country’s vulnerability to oil price shocks.
