Nigeria Is Few Years Away From Ending Rice Importation – Adesina

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Nigeria is few years away from ending the importation of rice, a government official has said.

At a leadership forum at the University of Oxford, England, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, said that “Nigeria’s future and that of the rest of Africa, lies in rural development through agriculture”.

Domestic rice production for Nigeria, if effectively realised, could change the fortune of local farmers and create the much needed jobs for the nation’s teeming youth population.

It was an engaging moment on Saturday with emerging African scholars and leaders from the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship at the Said Business School in Oxford University, England.

Dr Adesina shared with the group milestones in Nigeria’s bold policies and institutional reforms aimed at transforming the agriculture sector into a revenue and job spinning sector.

He stressed the need for Africa to focus on innovative mobilisation of its land and labour capital as a means of achieving inclusive growth. He urged the future leaders to champion this cause.

Low human capacity development amidst infrastructural deficits is a shared challenge across Africa.

The scholars at the forum, looking to reshape Africa’s economic future, agreed that a rising GDP does little for actual poverty eradication.

Nigeria’s Federal Government has a target of creating millions of jobs from agriculture by 2015, four months from now.

Part of this includes changing the general perception about agriculture as an unfashionable means of livelihood to a business venture that could create more jobs for Nigerians.