THE United Kingdom has renewed its commitment to the development of Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
Its High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, who stated this at the Feed Nigeria Summit in Abuja, said the United Kingdom is committed to leading the international market access opportunities for emerging markets across Africa.
This, she said, will be done through facilitating partnerships between UK and African companies to scale up development faster and foster sustainable agricultural practices in the continent.
According to her, agriculture provides employment for an estimated 35 percent of Nigeria’s population and remains the foundation of the Nigerian economy and the main source of livelihood for most Nigerians.
Laing, who was represented by the Africa Agric Director, UK-DIT, David Burton, lamented that the impacts of climate change and infrastructure gaps across Nigeria, as well as concerns around security and the business enabling environment impacts the country’s ability to really maximise its potential in this sector.
She added that the UK government will work with the government and private sector to increase productivity, improve nutrition and food security, and enhance climate resilience.
“When it comes to trade and international partnerships as a means of addressing food insecurity, we all know that food and agricultural trade can be highly beneficial for economic development and can help to address food insecurity.
“The evidence is clear, trade can deepen our relationships, benefit both parties and support our wider ambitions around development and the environment.
“We have used this opportunity to create new partnerships, negotiate our own trade agreements with those countries with whom we mutually have most to gain.
“Our shared ambitions with African governments to create jobs and build prosperity through sustainable economic growth makes the UK and Africa as a whole, natural partners in business”, Laing added.
The Director-General, Feed Nigeria Summit Secretariat, Richard Mbaram, said the programme was organised to support the country in a strategic way.
Mbaram stated that the stakeholders at the summit have come up with suitable measures to address the challenges of proper food storage to reduce the about 50 per cent post-harvest losses being recorded in Nigeria, among other recommendations.
“The focus of the summit is how to recalibrate the Nigerian economy using the advantages the agricultural sector and agribusiness ecosystem provides.
“We are looking through galvanised sectoral stakeholders’ capacity to hold government regarding the need for policies to be conceptualised, implemented and appraised in line with the realities from the feelers coming from the private sector.
“We are putting the private sector at the forefront and we are representing the private sector in the agricultural ecosystem”, he added.