Economy
Nigeria Launches $520m Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones to End Hunger
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria has begun its long journey to end hunger and achieve food security by launching the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ).
The launch ceremony in Abuja on Monday kick-starts the implementation of phase one of the SAPZ program in eight states across the country. These include – Cross River, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Ogun, Oyo, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The SAPZ program has already garnered huge momentum as an additional 19 state governments have expressed strong interest in participating in the program.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is providing funding of $210 million, with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) jointly providing $310 million, while the Nigerian government will contribute $18.05 million.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in remarks delivered by Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, praised the initiative and said, “if the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones program delivers on its objectives, and we have no doubt that it will, then we would in less than a decade have dealt a fatal blow to food insecurity, create millions of good paying agro-industrial jobs and opportunities and radically improve export earnings from agriculture.”
On his part, the AfDB President, Mr Akinwumi Adesina, said, “the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones are new economic zones, located in rural areas, to be fully supported by infrastructure (power, water, roads, digital infrastructure, and logistics) that will allow food and agribusiness companies to locate within such zones.
“This will put them close to farmers in production catchment areas, provide market offtakes for farmers, support processing and value addition, reduce food losses, and allow the emergence of highly competitive food and agricultural value chains.”
Mr Adesina, a former minister of agriculture of Nigeria, said: “Hunger in Nigeria cannot be justified. Nigeria has the land, with 34 million hectares of arable land with rich and diverse agroecology. It has water. It has the labour. It has great sunshine. Nigeria must achieve zero hunger. There is no reason for anyone to go hungry in Nigeria.”
To help Africa prevent a food crisis from the Russia-Ukraine war, the lender launched a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers to access climate-resilient agricultural technologies and produce 38 million metric tons of food valued at $12 billion.
“The African Emergency Food Production Facility provided $134 million to Nigeria, one of the highest levels of support across African countries. I would like to thank the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA) for co-financing this with an additional $110 million. That means we collectively made available $244 million for emergency food production in Nigeria,” the bank group head said.
Noting that the latest Global Hunger Index (2022) ranks Nigeria 103rd among 121 countries facing hunger crisis in the world, Mr Adesina called for “greater action, responsiveness, and delivery to avert a food crisis in Nigeria”.
“Nigeria must decisively tackle insecurity challenges that prevent farmers from going to the farms. Food security needs national security,” said Mr Adesina.
In a rallying call around the SAPZ program, Mr Adesina said: “The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) will help feed Nigeria, transform rural economies, expand fiscal space, fully unlock Nigeria’s agricultural potential, and create millions of jobs.”
“I am delighted that the SAPZs have finally come to pass in Nigeria and across Africa,” he said.
According to the IsDB President, Mr Muhammad Al Jasser, “with the disruption of supplies arising from the war, Africa now faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tons of food imports from Russia and Ukraine, especially for wheat, maize, and soybeans. Urgent actions are needed to prevent a food crisis in Africa.”
He expressed confidence Nigeria will efficiently implement the SAPZ program, which will boost food production, reduce food price inflation, and transform the agriculture sector while assuring food security and creating jobs.
On her part, the Associate Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Ms Katherine Meighan, said her organization is determined to contribute to the overall goal of the SAPZ programme by empowering 100,000 direct beneficiaries, including smallholders, small processors, traders, and service providers in Ogun and Kano State, with a strong focus on youth and women.
“Our empowerment strategy aims to equip farmers and smallholders to take advantage of the markets created by the SAPZ to sustainably enhance their income through income-generating activities, household food security and nutrition, and resilience to climate change,” said Ms Meighan.
The zones will develop value chains for selected strategic crops in Nigeria, including maize, cassava, rice, soybean, cocoa, poultry, and livestock products. They will also create millions of quality jobs, especially for youth and women.
Speaking on behalf of the phase one participating states and the Federal Capital Territory, the Governor of Cross River State, Mr Ben Ayade, praised the innovativeness of the program and said “the SAPZ program will help Nigeria develop an economy independent of oil. The program is a classical departure from other projects we know.”
During the event, Vice President Osinbajo launched a set of commemorative stamps for the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones. The stamps were designed by Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in conjunction with a local NGO, FLEESD.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange dropped for the third consecutive session on Wednesday, March 18, by 0.39 per cent due to continued sell-offs.
In what would be the final trading session of the week due to public holidays on Thursday and Friday for Eid-el-Fitr, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) further dipped by 16.14 points to 4,114.75 points from 4,130.89 points, and the market capitalisation lost N9.66 billion to close at N2.461 trillion versus the previous day’s N2.471 trillion.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc depreciated by N10.32 to sell at N112.00 per share versus N122.32 per share, NASD Plc dropped N4.50 to finish at N41.50 per unit compared with the previous session’s N46.00 per unit, and Geo-Fluids decreased by 9 Kobo to N3.02 per share from N3.11 per share.
On the flip side, Air Liquide Plc improved by N2.23 to N24.57 per unit from N22.34 per unit, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc advanced by 90 Kobo to N76.33 per share from N75.43 per share, Food Concepts Plc rose by 24 Kobo to N3.30 per unit from N3.06 per unit, UBN Property Plc surged by 20 Kobo to N2.18 per share from N1.98 per share, Impresit Bakalori Plc jumped 16 Kobo to N1.83 per unit from N1.67 per unit, and First Trust Mortgage Bank Plc added 14 Kobo to trade at N1.89 per share versus N1.75 per share.
During the trading day, the volume of securities went up by 43,404.4 per cent to 400.8 million units from 921,265 units, the value of securities grew by 2,108.7 per cent to N1.2 billion from N54.7 million, and the number of deals soared by 23.7 per cent to 47 deals from 38 deals.
CSCS Plc ended the day as the most traded stock by value (year-to-date) with 38.7 million units valued at N2.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units exchanged for N1.2 billion, and Okitipupa Plc with 6.4 million units traded for N1.2 billion.
Resourcery Plc finished the session as the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.1 billion units worth N415.7 million, trailed by Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units sold for N1.2 billion, and Geo-Fluids Plc with 131.1 million units valued at N505.6 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) experienced a pullback of 0.69 per cent as a result of profit-taking by investors, with shares in the banking and energy sectors mostly affected.
Data harvested by Business Post showed that the energy index was down by 4.58 per cent during the session, and the banking space lost 2.14 per cent.
They brought down the All-Share Index (ASI) by 1,402.56 points to 201,156.85 points from 202,559.41 points and shrank the market capitalisation by N900 billion to N129.126 trillion from N130.026 trillion.
Customs Street ended in red at midweek despite three of the five key sectors finishing in green. The consumer goods counter expanded by 1.19 per cent, the industrial goods index improved by 0.46 per cent, and the insurance sector grew by 0.43 per cent.
Red Star Express declined by 9.98 per cent to N25.70, Aradel Holdings went down by 9.68 per cent to N1,210.30, Presco lost 9.30 per cent to trade at N1,701.10, Living Trust Mortgage Bank crashed by 8.40 per cent to N4.80, and DAAR Communications dropped 7.50 per cent to end at N1.85.
On the flip side, Secure Electronic Technology gained 10.00 per cent to settle at N1.32, Guinness Nigeria rose by 9.92 per cent to N423.20, John Holt increased by 9.72 per cent to N11.85, Sovereign Trust Insurance surged by 9.57 per cent to N2.06, and Linkage Assurance chalked up 9.33 per cent to trade at N1.64.
Investor sentiment was weak yesterday after the bourse registered 33 price gainers and 38 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
Market participants bought and sold 6.1 billion stocks valued at N130.1 billion in 58,562 deals compared with the 1.8 billion stocks worth N88.1 billion traded in 62,654 deals on Tuesday, representing a shortfall in the number of deals by 6.53 per cent, and a spike in the trading volume and value by 238.89 per cent and 47.67 per cent apiece.
The most active equity on Wednesday was eTranzact with 5.2 billion units sold for N24.3 billion, Wema Bank exchanged 111.4 million units worth N3.1 billion, Coronation Insurance transacted 96.4 million units valued at N303.9 million, Dangote Cement traded 75.2 million units for N56.5 billion, and Access Holdings exchanged 61.5 million units valued at N1.6 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira stumbled against the Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Wednesday, March 18, by N8.96 or 0.67 per cent to trade at N1,353.00/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s rate of N1,344.04/$1.
Also, the local currency weakened against the Pound Sterling in the spot market at midweek by N6.06 to sell for N1,801.93/£1 compared with Tuesday’s value of N1,795.87/£1, and lost N4.75 against the Euro to quote at N1,556.22/€1 versus the preceding day’s N1,551.46/€1.
However, the Nigerian currency gained N2 against the greenback yesterday at the GTBank forex desk to close at N1,363/$1 versus the N1,365/$1 it was exchanged for a day earlier, and traded flat in the parallel market at N1,395/$1.
Nigeria’s external reserves fell by $178 million over three consecutive international payments recorded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), settling at $49.83 billion from $50.008 billion, indicating that there have been some interventions in the FX market for stability and liquidity.
While the wider outlook for the Naira is positive, potential disruptions to global oil supply have increased volatility in energy markets and could spike inflation with higher oil prices.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $71,000 on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell flagged rising oil prices amid the war in Iran as a new inflation risk. It sold at $70,538.58.
The US central bank held interest rates steady as expected, but during his post-meeting press conference, Mr Powell acknowledged that the recent surge in energy prices is already feeding into the central bank’s outlook.
He said rising oil prices “for sure showed up” in policymakers’ higher inflation outlook for this year, lifting their forecast to 2.7 per cent from 2.4 per cent.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) lost 6.3 per cent to trade at $2,178.56, Cardano (ADA) fell by 6.1 per cent to $0.2714, Dogecoin (DOGE) dropped 5.7 per cent to close at $0.0096, Solana (SOL) dipped 4.8 per cent to $89.83, Ripple (XRP) slumped by 3.8 per cent to $1.46, and Binance Coin (BNB) declined by 3.7 per cent to $648.61.
However, TRON (TRX) appreciated by 0.4 per cent to $0.3037, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
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