‘Investors need institutional framework that will outlive governments’

Emmanuel Ijewere, coordinator, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) and chairman, Best Foods/Fresh Farms, speaks on steps stakeholders have taken to ensure continuity that will protect agric investments in this interview with OLUYINKA ALAWODE and JOSEPHINE OKOJIE. Excerpt:

NABG

The Nigeria Agribusiness Group was a recommendation of the Eminent Persons Group of the Commonwealth. This group includes Koffi Anan, former United Nations secretary-general, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, Donald Kaberuka, outgoing president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Thabo Mbeki, former South African president. This body is an advisory body through the president of Nigeria on agriculture. Part of their recommendation was that it was very important that the government of Nigeria build up institutions that outlive any government, because of the simple philosophy in Africa,” government go, government come, private sector remains.”

That is very vital for continuity for investors. When the president sought how to implement this, he discovered that the existing bodies were trade associations. For example, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), concentrates on farmers who till the soil and grow the food, the National Cassava Association of Nigeria (NCAN), focuses on cassava and several others that operate as an association, but we need a body with a holistic view of the agric sector, to handle all agribusiness operations effectively and institutionalise reforms.

Necessity

In view of the policy of government that agriculture must be from seed to table, everybody involved in the value chains must be brought under one umbrella. We can recall that some years ago, during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, he came back from China with a Local Purchasing Order (LPO) for one million tons of cassava chips. That excited Nigerian farmers and they planted and grew more cassava. When it matured the farmers were disappointed because there were no off-takers to buy off the cassava and get them ready for China.

Losses

People, especially women, had so much cassava in store that they began to make garri out of it. They took the garri to market and discovered everybody was doing the same thing, which made the price of a particular quantity of garri to drop from N800 to N100. The women would then have to carry about 80 percent of the garri back home, but the price of carriage outweighs the value of the garri itself. That was because we did not look at the value chain, cassava has a short-term lifespan after which it becomes useless, turning to stick.

Value chain

Nigeria could not do the supply then because we had a poor value chain, no businesses to buy the cassava from farmers and process it to meet the quality of cassava the Chinese wanted.

All these previous problems led the current Federal Government to hold a meeting with all stakeholders and from these selected 23 companies that already had vested interest in Nigeria in various fields, and assigned them various roles, to go and put in place a structure that will carry everybody along. This is aimed at building sustainable structures with representation all along the value chains. This was how the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) was born.

Continuity

The other reason the Eminent Group made this recommendation was because governments have always come and gone and new ones come in and they neglect what has been put in place by previous administration(s). But the stakeholders are to ensure that a new government gets along with already existing programmes and activities to sustain and improve value chains.

Institutionalisation

The Nigeria Agribusiness Group, because it must be limited by guarantee, means that it is not just going through the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and getting a certificate but going through the Attorney General of the Federation. We have gone through that and we are in the final stage. As we try to perfect our documentations, other neighbouring countries like Kenya, have shown interest to partner with us, and Kenya has a lot to offer Nigeria because of her many years of experience in exporting, even though Nigeria has a large market. So the Nigeria group is bringing the private sectors of both countries together. At this forum, which is taking place in another two months, we will call everybody (all the associations) together.

Interests

Nigeria Agribusiness Group cannot go out of existence regardless of who is in power, we are in existence for our own personal interest as well. We were not appointed for any political reason. The group is for the people. I have said this to the incoming government that agriculture remains the only viable source of employment. Coincidentally, it is at this time we are experiencing fall in oil price. The government knows the country cannot survive by relying on crude oil alone.

We are not here to score political points but to score economic gains. To score those economic gains, we have to maintain international standard. All the companies involved have invested billions already in agriculture and we have a number of international organisations as member nations supported by their own home government.

Incoming government

We have already had an informal meeting with the president-elect and he is excited that a group like this exists. He said he has not come to destroy what is good in Nigeria but to build on existing policies. The ones that are not working well will be adjusted.

Cassava

Before now, wheat was a major product for bread making but through research we have found that cassava can be used to make bread to provide jobs for Nigerians. Now, we have to reduce the quantity of wheat flour we need. With devaluation of the naira the composite flour is now much cheaper compared to the wheat flour.

Rice

Looking at the full map of Nigeria, one will see how large the country is. Most of the people in the hinterland eat the local rice, which is more nutrious. A lot of companies are also playing on the intelligence of the people in Lagos by re-packaging the local rice in foreign bags and selling. Many people in Lagos have consumed local rice without knowing it is the local rice.

Inflation

Inflation is a figure derived by a basket. You decide what goes into the basket. The fact that Nigeria has been able to maintain single digit inflation is fantastic. The problem is imported inflation. Local farmers who put a whole lot of efforts to farm often lose 60 percent of their produce and only 40 percent gets to the market because of poor transportation and road network. The value chain disabilities in the agricultural sector are further causing inflation.