By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has called on multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to help finance $500 million to transform Nigeria’s food system and agro value chain.
Vice President Kashim Shettima made this call while chairing a high-level meeting on the first day of the United Nations Food Systems Summit declared open in Rome, Italy, by the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guteress.
He said the fund would be used for “innovation finance for food system transformation; development of Nigeria’s agro value chain and Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones programmes”.
Mr Shettima said, “In this event, the Government of Nigeria will be showcasing its Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) as a unique example of a successful partnership between producers, the public sector and private operators.”
“The VCDP, which is co-funded by the of Nigeria and IFAD, has empowered vulnerable farmers and youth to engage into commercial partnerships with some of the biggest food processing and marketing firms in the world such as Olam, a world-leading agri-business company operating in over 60 countries with an annual revenue of about $39.8 billion,” the VP added.
Stating the government’s vision for ending hunger, the VP added that “building on the success of the VCDP, the Federal Government is determined to capacitate Nigeria’s rural smallholders and operators, youth and women living below the poverty line to take advantage of the new Special Processing Zones.”
On the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ), Vice President Shettima said it “brings together local governments, IFAD, AfDB, IsDB, GCF, OLAM and other private actors alongside the government of Nigeria for transformative financing of food systems that leaves no-one behind.”
Recall that President Bola Tinubu recently declared a state emergency on food insecurity in the country as actions of non-state actors had fuelled skyrocketing food inflation.
Modupe Gbadeyanka