The Federal Government, through the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF), is wooing players in the financial sector, especially fund managers to unlock the full potentials of Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
Mohammed Ibrahim, Executive Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Agricultural Development Fund, made this known on Tuesday during a breakfast meeting with fund managers in Lagos.
Tagged, ‘Unlocking Agribusiness Finance in Nigeria: NADF as Catalytic Partner,’ Ibrahim disccussed the vision, strategy and opportunities within the Nigerian Agribusiness value-chain with the fund managers.
He stated that the primary aim of the breakfast meeting with fund managers was to deepen investment opportunities and how private capital can flow better into the Agribusiness value-chain.
“What are the constraints, what are the challenges, what do we need to do as a federal government institution that has been mandated to drive investment into this sector,” Ibrahim stated.
He also disclosed that the agency was established as a dedicated wholesale agricultural finance vehicle to tackle the dearth of funding, and support the growth as well as transformation of the agricultural sector towards food security and sovereignty.
He added that the NADF was not created as a replacement for private capital, but as a partner that can help reduce risk, build structure and prepare pipelines to deepen investment in the agricultural sector of the Country.
“Nigeria’s agricultural ecosystem must be approached as an interconnected whole. And that means the financing strategies we deploy must be equally integrated — focused not just on a single link but on strengthening the entire chain, from production to processing to distribution,” Ibrahim stated.
He stated that Agriculture within modern times has always faced the challenge of under-investment which is why the NADF is ralying the private sector to attract the much-needed private capital to the agric sector.
“It has to begin with conversations, it has to begin with understanding perspectives and then products that will test the challenges that we face are then designed,” Ibrahim stated.
