Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has given an assurance that the federal government would encourage the private sector’s investment in agriculture for the purposes of job creation.
Osinbajo said this yesterday at the formal commissioning of Pandagric Novum Farms, an integrated feed, and food manufacturing company in the Panda community in Karu LGA of Nasarawa State.
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and Signature Agri Investments were major investors in the project. The Vice President noted that the project’s commissioning was a foretaste of many possibilities and opportunities for investments in agriculture and other sectors.
“What you see today confirms that there is opportunity in Nigeria for investments in agriculture. While the government is creating an enabling environment, we will look to the private sector for invest-ments to galvanize growth in the sector. We must indeed work together to re-define agriculture for the future of Nigeria,” he said.
He listed instances in the different sub-sectors of the agriculture value chain, where the NSIA, as part of its key mandates, has invested in over the last 10 years Osinbajo further noted that in order to address both unemployment, local production growth and food security in particular areas of the country, the NSIA, in 2017, “established an Agriculture Development Fund under a 50:50 joint venture with the Old Mutual Group of South Africa, with a commitment of US$50 million (US$25 million each) towards the development and investment in large-scale agriculture projects, combined with out-grower schemes.
