Olam Agri to Support Nigeria Achieve Food Security, Sustainability

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

One of the leading players in the agribusiness sector, Olam Agri in Nigeria, has reiterated its intent to continue to collaborate and cooperate with the federal government to ensure food security and sustainability.

At the moment, Nigeria is battling with rising prices of food as a result of insecurity, particularly from the northern part of the country, where most of the food crops are planted.

The incessant attacks by bandits and terrorists have left farmers to abandon their farms and the few that have remained have had to pay taxes to their attackers.

This shortage in the supply of food items to the markets has caused prices to remain high, with food inflation slightly over 35 per cent and inflation at nearly 30 per cent.

Worried by this, the federal government has come up with different programmes to ease the suffering of Nigerians, though citizens are yet to feel the positive impacts of these initiatives.

Recently, the Country Head and Managing Director of Olam Agri in Nigeria, Mr Anil Nair, led a delegation of the management team to the nation’s Vice President, Mr Kashim Shettima.

During the courtesy visit, Mr Nair discussed how the company was making efforts to improve the supply of food in the country.

The managing director also informed Mr Shettima how Olam Agri is leveraging its three decades of experience and expertise in Nigeria across food and agricultural value chains to accentuate and sustainably advance the country’s food security initiatives.

In his remarks, the Vice President commended Olam Agri for supporting the economy, especially in job creation, rice production and others.

Some of those on the team of Olam Agri to the VP were Ade Adefeko, the Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, and Dr Umaru Ismail, the Chief Agronomist at Olam Agri’s Rice Farm, among others.