Food Production: Nigeria To Reactivate River Basin Development Authorities »

The Nigerian government plans to reactivate the country’s River Basin Development Authorities for enhanced food production and livelihood support for citizens.

Vice President Kashim Shettima stated this on Monday in Rome at a panel discussion tagged “Innovative Financing for Food Systems Transformation,” at the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit +2 in Rome, Italy.

Shettima, who featured in the panel discussion with the Prime Minister of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud; Deputy President of Kenya, Rigathi Gachagua; and Prime Minister of Niger Republic, Ouhoudou Mahamadou, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to reposition the Nigerian nation.

He said that President Tinubu hit the ground running from day one of his administration, which is barely two months in office, and has therefore declared state of emergency on food security.

“He declared a state of emergency on food security and took it as a livelihood item within the National Security Council.

“We had two albatrosses around our necks: subsidy on petrol and multiple exchange rates system.

“We withdrew the subsidy on petrol from day one, just like President Ruto did in Kenya. To mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal, the government embarked on the immediate release of grains and fertilizers.

“A commodity marketing board has been put in place to continuously review and monitor the prices of food items.”

Pointing out that Nigeria is a diverse country with great potentials, VP Shettima said the country’s government was making strenuous efforts to activate funding for the entire agricultural value chain.

“The nation has great potentials. One in every four black men is an Nigerian and it is projected that by 2050, Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world on earth, surpassing the United States.

“So, the anticipated demographic bulge will have the capacity of turning it into a demographic dividends or into a demographic disaster that will consume all of us.

“Along this way, we are determined to invest in agriculture, fundamentally because the whole mantra is increase in yield because the entrepreneurial capitalism is embedded in the very psyche of the average Nigerian.

“But while we have 133 million Nigerians suffering from multi-dimensional poverty, our people lack the wherewithal to go up in the ladder of development.”

According to Shettima, President Tinubu has already approved the infusion of funds towards repositioning of Nigeria’s security architecture because of the insecurity that the country has faced in recent times.

Presenting his country’s experience at the discussion, President Hassan Mohamud of Somalia, while noting that his country was coming back after years of absence, faces a lot of challenges.

He said Somalia is emerging from these difficulties by tackling the insecurity posed by terrorists that prevented farmers to access their farms.

“We are emerging from that difficult situation both in the security issue by defeating Al-Shabab in many areas of the country; by coming out of four successive years of drought in Somalia and this year is the best year we are getting enough rains.”

President said Somalia is reorganising and that the people have started producing food again with financing from private banks and micro finance banks.

He said the traditional models of financing would not be able to assist Somalia to come out quickly from the challenges it has faced.

“What we need is a new and creative model of accessing international financial institutions in most countries in Africa and especially fragile countries like Somalia.

“We need a new approach to financing the food systems, not the traditional models.”

Deputy President of Kenya, Gachagua, said the African continent needs to be looked at differently because of the different challenges confronting it.

Among the challenges he listed were the issues of armed conflict, climate change and terrorism.

“Therefore, we are calling upon the world; we calling on our partners all over the world to look at the issues on the African continent from a different perspective and apply very aggressive ways of putting funds aside to enable the African continent to have enough food and have surplus for export.”

The Prime of Niger also spoke on the challenges his country faces and the experiences of his government in mobilizing funds for the transformation of food systems.