Nigeria’s Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has called on investors to take advantage of abundant opportunities in the country, declaring that Nigeria’s young and energetic population gives them a great advantage.
Shettima stated this on Tuesday at an event tagged the Scaling up of Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration and Investments in the Implementation of the Food Systems Pathways in Nigeria.
The event was held on the sidelines of the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit in Rome, Italy.
“Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation on earth and the population is young. The median age is 19.
“We have the capacity of transforming the democratic bulge into demographic dividends, or it will be the demographic disaster that will consume all of us.
“But with determined leadership and the support of the global community, we believe, as eternal optimistic do, that there is hope in the horizon.”
Building blocks
Shettima hinted his hopes that this transformation can take place on what he described as building blocks that already exists in Nigeria.
These include 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, the National Food and Micro-Nutrient Intake Survey and the National State Level Food Systems.
The vice president also highlighted the “increasing collaboration between government and business, focusing on agribusiness and the understanding that investment that will transform food system will come from the private sector with government facing on the enabling environment.”
VP Shettima said that Nigerian government, together with 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 $521million from the IFAD, from the IsDB, and the AfDB.
“The success story of the value chain development programme speaks for itself.
“It has empowered 100, 000 small scale farmers to enter into engagement with some of the food marketing companies in the world enabling them to lift their families out of the poverty trap.
“The VCDP/SAPZ programme really represents unique and concrete model for mobilizing funds for investment in support of our national food systems transformation programme, the transition to more yielding, healthier, more equitable and more sustainable food system.”
Next frontier
Stating that the next frontier of global development faces Africa, Vice President Shettima said Nigeria remains critical to the success or failure of the transition and assured them that the new leadership in Nigeria is working hard to position the country on the path of growth.
“You have a president who has a private sector background, you have a vice president who is also from the private sector.
“You have a president who has the knack for selecting the best to drive the process.
“Be rest assured that the next frontiers for global development is facing Africa and Nigeria will make or mar that transition,” he assured.
