*Empathises with Nigerians over high petrol pump price
By Ayo Ola
The Managing Director of Silicon Valley Nigeria Economic Developments, Chief Aminat Temitope Ajayi, has said the current harsh impacts of the removal of petrol subsidy by President Bola Tinubu, will be cushioned by national food security subsidy.
She empathised with Nigerians over the current increment of petrol pump prices from N540 to N617 per litre in Abuja and from N488 per litre to between N568 and N700 in Lagos and some other states of the federation.
She said she was hopeful that the high price of petrol will not be permanent but will stabilise and even reduce given market forces and dynamics.
She opined that it is important to tap into the great agricultural potential of Nigeria to address national food insecurity or hunger, unemployment, inflation, revenue generation for the govenrment and the development of small and medium enterprises.
In a statement on Wednesday, she also lauded the Federal Government under President Tinubu for declaring a state of national emergency on food security to stem the current food inflation in Nigeria.
Chief Ajayi, the Founder/CEO of the Nigerian American Agricultural Empowerment Program (NAAEP) opined that it is lamentable that Nigeria is bedevilled by food insecurity with over 200m population.
Chief Ajayi, the Founder/CEO of the Nigerian American Agricultural Empowerment Program (NAAEP) opined that it is lamentable that Nigeria is bedevilled by food insecurity with over 200m population.
She noted that Nigeria has a total agricultural area of 70.8 million hectares, of which 34 million hectares are arable land, 6.5 million hectares are used for permanent crops, and 30.3 million hectares are meadows. She said it is sad that with such a great natural endowment, Nigeria imported food worth N7.8trn in 6 years.
Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), she stated over N1.9 trillion worth of food imports business transactions were conducted in 2022 as against the N2 trillion expended on food importation in 2021.
She added that in 2020, Nigeria imported N1.2 trillion worth of agricultural products and imported over N959 billion of food products in 2019. She added that Nigeria also imported N857.6 billion and N886.8 billion worth of food products in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
She also said that in 2022, a total of N1.9 trillion worth of food products were imported into the country and that the value of food imports in the second quarter of 2022 stood at N464.45 billion, showing an increase when compared to the value recorded in the previous quarter.
According to her, Nigeria has great resources and potential to produce food for the citizens, reduce substantially the imports and even export more.
Chief Ajayi said it is heartwarming that the president Federal Government under President Tinubu has indicated a great commitment to agriculture going by the recent media briefing by the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake.
The SVNED boss said her organisation had already keyed into the food security programme of the government through her partnership with Arewa farms, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, and other organisations.
She stated that SVNED has trained farmers and entrepreneurs and appealed to the Federal Government to support them so as to bring their wealth of training to boost food production and entrepreneurship in the country.
She commended President Tinubu and Alake.
She said that in her commitment to agricultural development, she introduced the Arewa farmers to the Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, who is also Co-Chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN). She explained that Ooni accepted to be one of the Patrons of the programme.
She also said that she took the Arewa farmers to Etsu Nupe, His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr.) Yahaya Abubakar, who also accepted to be the Chairman of the group.
Chief Ajayi said, “The solution to food subsidy is national food security subsidy. I thank God that SVNED has partnered with all the Arewa farmers in Nigeria to support food security and food subsidy. We have applied on their behalf for the intervention loan for agriculture and small cottage industries. The application has already been submitted waiting for approval. The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has already approved SVNED as a registered Entrepreneurship Development Institution (EDI) to facilitate the training and processing
“The mandate is from NISRAL MicrofFinace Bank appointing us as one of its Entrepreneurship Development Institutions in the Agri-Bujsiness/Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) Loan Programme for 2023. One of the mandates is to train entrepreneurs in business best business practices and how to run successful businesses. After that, we certify them and forward their list to NISRAL to be able to provide access to finance so that they will be able to start up and run successfully.
“The aim of the training is to be sure that people become enterprising so that they do not just give people money and they do not even know how to use it. Or even those who know how to use it do not know how to manage their businesses and at the end of the day, they will not do successful businesses. So SVNED is there to bridge the gap and provide them with the necessary entrepreneurship skills and business acumen to be able to run small businesses effectively.
“We have submitted some names of the trained entrepreneurs and farmers pending approval.
“We have also registered all the Commodities Presidents. SVNED is most grateful to this present administration. They have to supply our farmers with seeds, inputs and fertilizer because they are already in the system. We have been on this since last year. We have been training Nigerians.”
“We have started planting in Jos, Plateau. We have already existing 1,000 hectares of land already cleared and we have started planting it. We can be visited anytime. We have already started implementing the food security of Mr President and thereby started making him proud. We believe so much in his government.
“We have been involved in the intervention programme of the government even from the past administration. For the government to identify them as one of the implementers of the intervention means they are really doing well. They have done a lot of programmes that have impacted on farmers and entrepreneurs.
“I am appealing to Mr. President to really equip them because as of today, they are really the voice of the masses.”
“I took my partners, the Arewa Farmers and some of the Commodity Board members to meet the Ooni of Ife and he accepted to be one of the patrons of this project so as to assist the President of Nigeria. He also promised that he will do everything in his capacity to address food insecurity and unemployment in the country.
“I also took them to Etsu Nupe, His Eminence Dr. Yahaya Abubakar. He accepted to be the Chairman of this organisation. Everybody is working to support the present administration.”
She recall that representatives from the Agricultural Commodities Association in the Agriculture Sector For Real Sustainable National Economic Development under the auspices of National Agricultural Commodities Projects 2023, had during a recent media briefing with her, stated that progress was made by the previous administration, where agriculture was the centrepiece of their engagements.
She said they added that it is time for them not to move to the next level not only in agricultural financing, but cultivation, warehousing, processing, manpower development, management of commodity Boards and utilising agriculture for national development.
Chief Ajayi said, “They also stated that with the progress made so far, there also exist challenges which require real agricultural practitioners to help solve.
“The Commodity Associations Presidents who have been members of APC PCC of this government informed President Tinubu to involve them in all agricultural-related activities from the ministerial position to what the government deems them fit, adding that they are loyal and ready to contribute their quota for Nigeria.