Governor Bagudu sees new FX policy attracting better financial returns for agric sector

Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State has said the new flexible exchange regime adopted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will favour farmers, saying it has the potential of even attracting more people into agriculture and eventually retooling the economy.

Bagudu’s optimism comes from the huge role market forces play in bringing competition and eventually determining prices of agro-commodity products.

Nigeria’s apex bank had on Tuesday last week allowed the naira to float against the dollar through a flexible exchange rate policy, causing market force to be the key determinant of the dollar rate, which analysts believe would speed up competitiveness amongst Nigeria farmers with better economic yields for them through sell of their farm produce, within and outside Nigeria.

Bagudu told BusinessDay on the sidelines of his visit to the minister of agriculture in Abuja that, “With the new exchange policy, price competition is a very important factor and this is a huge plus for farmers. Already many states in Nigeria are already buying up our paddy rice, and we are even targeting the West African market, so that our farmers would earn more foreign exchange alongside those in the respective value chain.”

The governor, who is a key member of the Presidential Task Force on rice and wheat sufficiency, while raising hope on the   competitiveness of Nigeria’s rice and other agro-allied commodities, said, “What these has done for us is that more people would be attracted to make a living through agribusiness, either by being a farmer, a producer or by young men being service providers, power tillers among others.

“Farming is profitable and we are getting key supports from our international partners such as IFAD to ensure our farmers explore market and business opportunities in the agricultural sector and establish themselves as their international counterparts.”

He said,” Our ambition is wider than Nigeria’s self-sufficiency, we want to be able to feed the West Africa, so that we could export and our young men and women could have a Business to start off with, and even have international commodity traders for Nigeria.

On several support to the farmers at the state level, the governor said, “Flood is still a big issue. It is also a major risk factor when it comes to agriculture.

“The key support we would be doing is to ensure farmers learn the best practice: the improved seedlings to use. Adequacy of fertilizer, pesticides, and guarantee their accessibility of basic equipment that supports their activities.

“We are even preaching to other states to quickly replicate what we are doing and expand their production in area where they have competitive advantage, so that together, we could achieve the food security target of the present administration.”

Nigeria spends $5 million daily on rice importation, and a little higher of such amount on wheat importation, gulping Nigeria huge amount of forex. But with the flexible exchange policy announced by the CBN, and ban of accessing forex by rice and wheat importers, analysts believe that Nigerian rice’s farmers are better positioned to compete favourably now in the market, especially now that states like Lagos, Ebonyi, and Abia State is buying up paddy rice from Kebbi State.

 

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