Economy
Stakeholders Identify Reason for Local Wheat Production Shortage
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Stakeholders in the wheat value chain have identified one of the reasons for the shortage of production of the commodity in Nigeria.
They said the inability of smallholder farmers to have access to high-yielding-seed varieties was making it difficult for producers to meet domestic demand for wheat in the country.
If this problem persists, they warned that Nigeria may not achieve self-sufficiency and drastically reduce the importation of wheat by 60 per cent over the next two years as targeted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
There is a need for a concerted effort by the government and other critical stakeholders within the wheat value chain to galvanize and aggressively drive the wheat development programmes in the country, they submitted.
Wheat is used in producing staple foods such as semolina, bread, noodles and pasta, which form a regular part of meals in most urban and rural households in the country.
The importance of wheat foods to the national population, therefore, underscores the need to develop the domestic wheat value chain which currently is not delivering enough to meet the growing demand for wheat derivatives; hence, the need for interventions from the government at different levels and other stakeholders in the wheat value chain to address the challenges in promoting local wheat production in Nigeria.
As it stands, increasing the total yield per hectare of national farmlands is critical to reaching food sufficiency levels that will meet the needs of over 200 million Nigerians.
In deepening the impact of the wheat development programme, the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria to which Crown Flour Mill is a major contributor to is also working with the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI) in Maiduguri and the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) at the Ahmadu Bello University, to train local smallholder farmers on the latest agronomic practices.
The expanded wheat development efforts are yielding impressive results. Smallholder farmers that are participating in the FMAN wheat development programmes have shown remarkable technical improvement that is matched by impressive feedbacks and output.
A delegation from Olam, the parent company of CFM, travelled to Jigawa after participating in a wheat development webinar programme organized by the agribusiness conglomerate in Abuja, farmers attested to the impact of the high level of support provided by the millers’ association and its partners.
One of the wheat farmers remarked, “We were advised to plant at a particular time to get the best yield possible but I insisted on doing things my way. It nearly cost me the season, but I came back to the (FMAN) team for assistance and this time around, I heeded their advice and the result was unbelievable.”
Expatiating on CFM’s wheat development support drives, Ashish Pande, the Managing Director of the wheat milling firm said, “Our commitment to research and development is the key to why we’ve been successful as an organization over the years and have been able to consistently create better quality, safe, great-tasting and more reliable food produce/products which meet our customers’ needs and improve the livelihoods of our farmers.”
Despite having access to a large expanse of farming lands in places such as Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Kano, Jigawa and Zamfara States, smallholder wheat farmers have not been able to meet domestic consumption demand for wheat.
It is apparent that without removing the seed-variety barrier, the acute shortage of locally produced wheat will persist. Whereas this would necessitate the continued reliance on wheat importation to bridge the widening domestic production-consumption gap, it does not portend well for national food security.
The economic and social costs of relying on wheat importation are enormous. While the foreign exchange is being sourced by local wheat millers to import the crop to meet national consumption demand, the exchange position of the local currency is affected and precious employment opportunities that could be generated by smallholder farmers if harvest reaches full capacity, are also lost.
Stressing the need to remove the seed variety barrier to improved domestic wheat production, Mohammed Salim, president of the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria (WFAN) said, “One of our challenges is getting quality seeds every two years. Wheat is an open-pollinated crop and the maximum you can do with a particular seed is four years or thereabout. So, if the government can finance the research institutes to come up with new varieties every two years, that will sustain production and keep the farmers in business.”
Going by this insight by Salim, providing sufficient finance to fund local research institutes to develop new seed varieties for local farmers biennially is key to bridging the domestic production-consumption gap in the wheat value chain.
However, Crown Flour Mill Limited (CFM), a subsidiary of the Olam Group and makers of the Mama Gold flour brand, in collaboration with other members of the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN), is leveraging its agro experience, extensive industry network and deep investment portfolio to aggressively support the domestic agro research institutes to drive innovation and make high-yielding seed varieties available to local wheat farmers. The investment and innovative approach form a bold new drive to raising local wheat production levels while keeping smallholder farmers in business, as suggested by Salim.
As part of the collaborative approach to making high yielding seed varieties available to local wheat farmers, CFM, alongside other contributors and partners at the milling association, under the Certified Seed Production Programme, have established a research farm to nurture the seed varieties it brought into the country from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Sudan and Mexico. These efforts add to an ongoing partnership that the millers are implementing with various seed production companies comprising Rahama Seed, Greenspore and Premier seed.
In the coming months, the massive partnership network is expected to lead to the distribution of 150 tons of wheat seeds to around 3,000 smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
The deliberate wheat development programmes embarked upon by CFM and others under the auspices of the flour milling association, when fully optimized, will no doubt reduce the high dependence on imported wheat. It will also reduce the foreign exchange wheat import bill while boosting the national economic diversification agenda.
In the end, the Nigerian consumers are going to be the real beneficiaries of the increasing level of the various interventions and wheat development programmes undertaken by CFM and other leading millers. The consumers will continue to have access to their most cherished wheat foods such as semolina, pasta, noodles and bread at the right quality, quantity, nutritional value and most affordable shelf price.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Manufacturers of Nigeria (MAN) has warned that manufacturers are facing a disparity in access to structured credit, which is affecting the sector’s productivity.
In his analysis, the Director General of MAN, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, explained that commercial bank credit to manufacturers declined by N1.92 trillion between December 2024 and December 2025 to N6.61 trillion from N8.53 trillion.
The figure, he said, represents a year-on-year contraction of 22.5 per cent, placing manufacturing among the sectors with the highest decline in credit access.
Mr Ajayi-Kadir said the development was troubling at a time when Nigeria requires increased investment in productive sectors to strengthen local production, reduce import dependence and create employment opportunities.
“Declining access to affordable finance is threatening factory expansion, employment and economic diversification, and government and regulators need to urgently reform industrial financing,” he said.
He noted that while manufacturing credit suffered a major decline, other sectors such as oil and gas and financial services continued to attract higher levels of bank financing, raising concerns about the allocation of capital towards productive activities.
The MAN DG blamed the worsening situation on a combination of high borrowing costs, restrictive monetary conditions, commercial banks’ risk-averse lending approach and delays in implementing targeted industrial support programmes.
He highlighted high interest rates as one of the biggest obstacles confronting businesses, noting that borrowing costs remain too expensive for long-term investments in factories, machinery upgrades and production expansion.
MAN stated that with lending rates reportedly above 30 per cent in many cases, manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to finance operations, maintain competitiveness and expand capacity.
The association also identified the high Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) maintained by the Central Bank of Nigeria as another factor limiting the amount of funds available for lending to businesses.
According to MAN, commercial banks have become more cautious in extending credit because they bear the risks associated with intervention funds, leaving manufacturers unable to meet collateral and equity requirements demanded by lenders.
The association also cautioned that weakening domestic production could deepen inflationary pressures by increasing dependence on imported goods and putting additional pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
To reverse the trend, the MAN boss called for urgent measures, including the introduction of government-backed credit guarantees for small and medium-scale manufacturers.
Mr Ajayi-Kadir also urged the government to ensure the immediate implementation of the Manufacturing Stabilisation Fund and create a more direct financing structure capable of delivering single-digit interest loans to genuine manufacturers.
He said Nigeria’s industrial ambitions could only be achieved when manufacturers have access to affordable and sustainable financing.
The MAN boss warned that without a functional credit system supporting production, Nigeria’s goal of becoming a competitive manufacturing economy would remain difficult to achieve.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange returned to positive territory after it chalked up 1.18 per cent on Wednesday, June 24.
The NASD Security Index (NSI) was up during the session by 50.02 points to 4,289.36 points from the previous session’s 4,239.34 points, and the market capitalisation got a N30.03 billion boost to settle at N2.574 trillion compared with Tuesday’s closing value of N2.544 trillion.
The growth witnessed yesterday was influenced by two securities, led by Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which improved its value by N4.68 to N79.68 per share from N75.00 per share. Food Concepts Plc grew by 25 Kobo to sell at N2.75 per unit versus the preceding day’s N2.51 per unit.
At the close of trading activities, the value of securities bought and sold by market participants went up by 1,387.1 per cent to N82.9 million from the preceding session’s N5.6 million, and the volume of securities soared by 1,162.2 per cent to 2.7 million units from the previous 211,671 units, while the number of deals was halved by 50 per cent to 19 deals from 38 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 68.3 million units transacted for N4.7 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units exchanged for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units traded for N415.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Naira further depreciated by 0.72 per cent or N9.90 against the United States Dollar to N1,380.54/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Wednesday, June 24, in contrast to Tuesday’s exchange rate of N1,370.64/$1.
Equally, the local currency weakened against the Pound Sterling in the same official market yesterday by N4.88 to close at N1,815.63/£1 versus the previous session’s N1,810.75/£1, and lost N2.61 on the Euro to sell at N1,563.63/€1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,561.02/€1.
However, at the GTBank forex counter, the domestic currency maintained stability against the US Dollar during the session at N1,380/$1, and at the parallel market, it closed flat at N1,395/$1.
Rising FX payments and a strong US Dollar have generally put significant pressure on emerging-market currencies, like the Naira.
According to the data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NFEM interbank FX turnover was relatively steady at $125.588 million across 126 deals, from $125.314 million the previous day.
Interbank FX activity among financial institutions has fluctuated amid a sharp slowdown in forex market interventions by the apex bank, with more than six weeks of no support for the local currency.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s foreign reserves increased further to $51.142 billion, while global oil prices entered the lower $70s.
Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, nearly $1 billion worth of futures positions were liquidated across crypto majors to tokenised versions of stocks such as Micron Technology Inc (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK).
The dip triggered roughly $430 million in long liquidations on Bitcoin-tracked futures, or bets on higher prices that were automatically closed as the price fell.
Thursday’s PCE inflation print, the Fed’s preferred price gauge, is the next data point that could move the market in either direction, with Dogecoin (DOGE) down by 2.4 per cent to $0.0771.
Further, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 1.9 per cent to $61,584.02, Ethereum (ETH) shed 1.6 per cent to trade at $1,645.50, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 1.6 per cent to $1.08, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 1.5 per cent to $570.95, Cardano (ADA) crashed by 1.1 per cent to $0.1495, and Solana (SOL) slipped by 1.0 per cent to $69.19.
But TRON (TRX) gained 0.1 per cent to finish at $0.3288, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
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