Nigeria’s Federal Government has expressed concern over the country’s heavy dependence on food imports, which it says cost the nation more than $10 billion annually. The call for urgent reform came at the FirstBank of Nigeria Ltd. 2025 Agric & Export Expo held in Lagos on Tuesday.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari — represented by his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Alkali — warned that the scale of imports, including wheat, rice, sugar, fish, and tomato paste, undermines both food security and economic stability.
“Agriculture already contributes 35 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product and employs 35 per cent of our workforce,” Kyari said. “We sit on 85 million hectares of arable land with a youth population of over 70 per cent under the age of 30. Yet Nigeria accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of global agro-exports and earns under $400 million from agricultural exports annually.”
The minister emphasised that to reduce imports and reposition agriculture as a driver of non-oil exports, the country must overhaul how it finances the sector. Traditional credit systems, he noted, often “suffocate farmers instead of supporting them.”
“What Nigeria needs are instruments that align with the realities of farming — mechanisms that reward performance, adjust to risk, and align investors with producers,” he said. “Across the world, innovative financing has transformed agriculture from subsistence to surplus. Nigeria can do the same if we adopt models such as revenue-sharing finance, forward contracts, pay-as-you-harvest schemes, equity financing, and agricultural goals with performance triggers.”
The Agric & Export Expo, renamed this year to highlight Nigeria’s push for non-oil exports, brought together policymakers, financiers, and agribusiness leaders to brainstorm sustainable solutions.
In his keynote, FirstBank Nigeria’s Managing Director and CEO reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to supporting agricultural transformation.
“The FirstBank Agric & Export Expo reflects our unwavering commitment to positioning non-oil exports as a transformative force in Nigeria’s economy,” he said. “By fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and making strategic investments, we can unlock the full potential of our agricultural value chain and open new pathways to shared prosperity. The partnerships shaped here will lay the foundation for a new era of growth, not only for Nigeria but for Africa as a whole.”
The government’s message comes at a time of rising food inflation and mounting pressure on foreign reserves. Experts say without bold reforms in financing and export development, Nigeria risks deepening its dependence on imports, despite its vast agricultural potential.