Make agric a viable business, Fed Govt advised

The Executive Chairman, Foundation for Economic Research and Training (FERT), Prof. Akpan Ekpo, has advised the Federal Government to create an environment that will make agriculture a viable business.

According to him, this would make people start seeing agric as a profitable business rather than just agriculture.

Ekpo, a Professor of Economics & Public Policy, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, gave this advice in his keynote speech during the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) breakfast meeting held in Lagos.

The meeting, organised by NACC, was sponsored by the EB5 Capital and Specjobs Limited.

EB5 Capital helps foreign investors to gain permanent residency in the United States through investments within the guidelines of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Programme–a United States government effort that encourages investment in job-creating ventures.

NACC has been advocating the diversification of the nation’s economy using agriculture as vehicle.

Ekpo noted that although agriculture has done well, not on a sustainable basis. “Are we producing and exporting to earn foreign exchange; have we changed the structure of production from being a consuming economy?” he asked, noting that the country has not done these.

He said agric has not been modernised. “If you see an increase in agric production or output, it’s still due to rainfall. We need to modernise agriculture and make it a large scale that will depend on technology, not on nature to move the economy forward,” he said.

Ekpo added that if agric is modernised and made to operate as a viable and profitable business, more Nigerians will be attracted into the venture and agric will contribute more to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He also said with more people involved in agric because of its commercial viability, they would feed all Nigerians and export.

NACC President Mr. Oluwatoyin Akomolafe noted that Nigeria’s GDP growth had remained largely unimpressive and still exhibits the same pattern of the pre-crisis period of 2017.

According to him, as at the third quarter of last year, unemployment and underemployment rates were high. An estimated 49.1 percent of the country’s population was also below the poverty line.

He, however, maintained that the Chamber was committed to promoting the development of trade, commerce, investment and industrial/technology between Nigeria and the US.