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.
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By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government, states and the Local Government Councils have received a sum of N1.928 trillion from the revenue generated in November 2025 by the federation.
According to a statement by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), the earnings were shared at the December 2025 FAAC meeting held in Abuja, where the total distributable revenue comprised statutory revenue of N1.403 trillion, Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N485.838 billion, and Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N39.646 billion.
It was disclosed that total gross revenue of N2.343 trillion was available in the month of November 2025, with N84.251 billion deducted for cost of collection and N330.625 billion for total transfers, interventions, refunds and savings.
FAAC stated that gross statutory revenue of N1.736 trillion was received for the month of November 2025, lower than the N2.164 trillion received in the month of October 2025 by N427.969 billion.
Gross revenue of N563. 042 billion was available from VAT in November 2025, lower than the N719.827 billion available in the month of October 2025 by N156.785 billion.
In November 2025, Excise Duty increased moderately while Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Hydrocarbon Tax (HT), CIT on Upstream Activities, Companies Income Tax (CIT), CGT and SDT, Oil & Gas Royalties, Import Duty, CET Levies, Value Added Tax (VAT), Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) and Fees recorded substantial decreases.
From the N1.928 trillion total distributable revenue, the federal government got N747.159 billion, the state governments received N601.731 billion, and the local councils shared N445.266 billion, while N134.355 billion was given to benefiting states as 13 per cent of mineral derivation.
On the N1.403 trillion distributable statutory revenue, the national government received N668.336 billion, the 36 states got N338.989 billion, and the LGAs received N261.346 billion, and N134.355 billion shared as 13 per cent of mineral revenue.
In addition, from the N485.838 billion distributable VAT revenue, the central government got N72.876 billion, the state governments shared N242.919 billion, and the local councils shared N170.043 billion.
Further, N5.947 billion was taken by the federal government from the N39.646 billion EMTL, the states shared N19.823 billion, and the councils received N13.876 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of Golden Capital Plc and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.04 per cent on Monday, December 15.
This pulled down the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 1.37 points to 3,599.06 points from last Friday’s 3,600.43 points and the market capitalisation lost N820 million to close at N2.153 billion compared with the preceding session’s N2.154 trillion.
Golden Capital Plc depleted by 94 Kobo to end at N8.51 per share compared with N9.45 per share and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc depreciated by 63 Kobo to sell at N59.60 per unit versus N60.23 per unit.
During the session, the volume of securities traded at the session slumped by 98.4 per cent to 600,402 units from 37.4 million units, the value of securities fell by 99.8 per cent to N7.8 million from N4.9 billion, and the number of deals shed 36.4 per cent to 21 deals from 33 deals.
At the close of trades, Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc remained the most traded stock by value with a year-to-date sale of 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 178.9 million units transacted for N9.5 billion, and MRS Oil Plc with 36.1 million units worth N4.9 billion.
InfraCredit Plc was also the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units worth N16.4 billion, trailed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with the sale of 1.2 billion units for N420.3 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 537.0 million units traded for N524.9 million.
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