The Federal Government has raised concern over Nigeria’s low revenue from agricultural exports, noting that the sector makes a major contribution to the economy yet generates less than $400 million in foreign exchange.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, spoke on Tuesday in Lagos at the First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. 2025 Agric and Export Expo.
“Agriculture already contributes 35 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product and employs 35 per cent of our workforce.
We sit on 85 million hectares of urban 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 exports.
However, Nigeria earns less than $400 million from agro exports. To build a non-oil export economy, we must rethink how we finance agriculture,” Kyari said.
He also reiterated the Tinubu administration’s commitment to ensuring food sovereignty, stressing the need for stronger agricultural financing.
“President Tinubu’s administration has made it clear that food sovereignty is the goal.
Nigeria must not only feed itself, but do so on its own terms, free from excessive dependency on imports.
Sovereignty means ensuring that no Nigerian goes hungry because of shocks in the global food supply chain, allowing every community to stand on the strength of our land, our people, and our productivity.
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Boosting domestic production and building support for exports are not separate agendas.
They are two sides of the same coin. We have the land, the labour, and the markets, but we lack the system of financing, value addition, and infrastructure that converts potential into prosperity.
The fundamentals compel that we pilot from dependence on oil rigs to resilience in food and export earnings, from rural commodity exports to value-added agribusiness.
From fragmented farmer credit to structured financial systems that attract significant capital and from stereotyped perceptions to improved participation of youth in the agricultural sector,” Kyari said.
He added that Nigeria must adopt better systems and critical thinking to improve food security.
“Nigeria can do better if we begin to think critically and improve mechanisms such as revenue sharing, finance, agricultural goals with performance triggers, factoring forward contracts, Pay-as-Harvest, and the rest.
These are not abstract theories. They are working in real economies,” he said.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), trade accounted for 18.21% of GDP in the first quarter of 2025, surpassing crop production at 17.47%.
This was a reversal from the final quarter of 2024, when pre-rebasing figures showed crop production contributing 23.42% of GDP compared with 15.11% for trade.
“Trade’s contribution to GDP was 18.21%, lower than the 18.45% it represented in the previous year, and higher than the 17.18% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024,” the report said.
According to Nairametrics, in April, the Federal Government launched the Green Money Project, a presidential initiative aimed at empowering young Nigerians through modern agricultural practices.
Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Agriculture, Abiodun Yinusa, described the project as a strategic intervention at its inauguration at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).
He said one of its main objectives is to strengthen food security in a significant and sustainable way by engaging unemployed youth as agents of agricultural transformation.
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Image Credit: Business Day
