Vice-President Kashim Shettima has urged foreign investors to take advantage of the opportunities in Nigeria as the country is ready for business.
Mr Shettima made the call at a side event of the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit, according to a statement by his spokesman Olusola Abiola, in a statement.
The vice-president noted that the combination of Nigeria’s young, energetic population and the agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s government placed the country far ahead of others in the region.
“We have the capacity of transforming the demographic bulge into demographic dividends, or it will be the demographic disaster that will consume all of us. Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation on earth, and the population is young. The median age is 19,” stated the Nigerian vice-president.
He explained that with “determined leadership and the support of the global community, we believe, as eternal optimists do, that there is hope on the horizon.”
Mr Shettima also expressed hope that the expected transformation could take place on the back of what he described as “building blocks that already exist” in Nigeria, noting that they include the government’s recent declaration of a state of emergency on food security, moving food and water to the purview of National Security Council, the country’s renewed commitment to food and nutrition since the Nutrition Conference of 2022.
On improving collaboration between government and the private sector, Mr Shettima said focusing on agribusiness and the understanding that investment that would transform the food system would come from the private sector, with the government providing the enabling environment, would scale up investment.
He told the gathering that the Nigerian government and domestic and international finance institutions scaled up the value-chain development programme approach for the special agro-processing zones programme with an impressive investment of $521 million from the IFAD, the IsDB, and the AfDB.
“The success story of the value chain development programme speaks for itself. The programme has empowered 100,000 small-scale farmers to enter into engagement with some of the food marketing companies in the world, which enabled them to lift their families out of the poverty trap,” the vice-president explained.
Mr Shettima noted that the VCDP/SAPZ programme “represents a unique and concrete model for mobilising funds for investment to support our national food systems transformation programme, the transition to more yielding, healthier, more equitable and more sustainable food system.”
Mr Shettima, who said Nigeria remained critical to the success or failure of the transition, assured that the new leadership in Nigeria was working hard to position the country on the path of growth.
“We have a president who has a private sector background and a vice president who is also from the private sector. We have a president who has the knack for selecting the best to drive the process,” the vice-president. “Be rest assured that the next frontiers for global development are facing Africa, and Nigeria will make or mar that transition.”
