Experts say large-scale technology adoption, affordable credit access and a systems approach can significantly impact Nigeria’s agriculture as the country strives for food security amid rising hunger.
Speaking at the BusinessDay Future of Agriculture Conference on Thursday, experts urged a new approach to food security, expanded structured agricultural financing, and large-scale mechanisation to boost productivity and reduce reliance on food imports.
According to them, access to cheap credit across the value chain and large-scale technology use are vital in boosting agricultural productivity.
Kola Masha, managing director of Babban Gona, stressed that agrifinance is the missing link in unlocking the country’s agricultural potential.
“Agri-finance has the power to ignite wealth creation and expand industries by fixing broken value chains,” Masha said.
“The scalability of agrifinance means it can significantly uplift smallholder farmers if financial institutions step in to provide funding,” he added.
With high lending rates, Masha described the sector as “unviable” for smallholder farmers who dominate food production. Interest rates in Nigeria are north of 30 percent for most businesses. The Central Bank of Nigeria hiked the benchmark lending rate by a combined 875 basis points last year in a battle to tame high inflation, taking borrowing costs to a record high and squeezing borrowers.
Banks in Nigeria have never fancied lending to the agriculture sector, due to its largely informal nature, preferring instead to lend to big oil and gas firms and manufacturing firms with less risk.
Masha urged banks to adopt Banking as a Service (BAAS) models, which seamlessly integrate banks and farmers, providing smallholder farmers with essential inputs while unlocking wealth for agro-processors.
“The scalability of agrifinance means it can significantly uplift smallholder farmers if financial institutions step in to provide funding,” he said.
He urged the government at all levels to make farming and agriculture attractive to attract private capital by fixing broken value chains while cracking down the systemic dislocation in the sector.
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He noted that the country can become a major agricultural player when farming is transformed into low risk and high profit yielding business.
Oluwatosin Ojo, a partner at Sahel Capital, noted that farmers struggle to access finance because stakeholders in the value chain operate in silos rather than as an interconnected system.
“We need to first understand that agriculture is a system and have a system approach to addressing issues. We cannot keep solving our food challenges in silos.”
“We need a system that works, one that is a multidimensional connectivity of all the processes in the value chain.”
She reckoned that investors expect profit on their investments, which is why they sometimes refuse financing to individual farmers, knowing of the risks such as climate change, flooding, and poor seedlings.
“The value chain is broken. We need to find the interlinkages where everything we do is intertwined. If we don’t do this, finance will be lost,” Ojo noted.
Speaking on how technology in agriculture can accelerate growth and boost productivity, Femi Adekoya, founder of Integrated Aerial Precision, stated that Nigeria has reached a point where technology is indispensable in farming activities.
“Technology saves time in farming. It saves time, makes things easier for the farmer, and can produce more food in less time than more farmers can.”
He explained that with advancements such as drone technology and precision farming, farmers could increase efficiency while protecting themselves from hazardous substances and diseases that may spread from plants to humans.
“With technology, especially drone technology, farmers can plant on more than 100 hectares of farmland in a day. They are also protected from hazardous substances that can be spread by certain plant pests,” he said.
“This is because with technology these pests can be caught before they cause harm to plants and the farmer.”
Godson Ohuruogu, chief executive officer of TracTrac Mechanisation Services Limited, pointed out that Nigeria’s agriculture sector is limited by a lack of access to tractors, poor policies, and insufficient capacity among farmers to handle mechanised equipment.
“Nigeria has a tractor challenge that is limiting our food production, and this is a big problem,” he said.
He called for government-backed incentives for local tractor fabrication and a structured approach to scaling farmers from smallholder operations into commercial ventures.
John Alamu, group managing director of Johnvents Industries, raised concerns over the inability of the government to make agriculture attractive to youths.
“Over 60 percent of Nigerians are youth and not doing agriculture. If the youth are more involved, there will be more innovation that will help us address climate issues,” Alamu said.
Kabir Ibrahim, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), warned that food security cannot be attained without addressing Nigeria’s weak infrastructure and tackling insecurity.
“We cannot talk about food systems without power, transportation, and security. These are the backbone of agricultural productivity,” he said.
Frank Aigbogun, publisher of BusinessDay, welcoming stakeholders, said the country has what it takes to achieve food security, with arable lands suitable for farming.
He stressed the need for Nigeria to cut post harvest losses. “We can go beyond being food sufficient to becoming a key player in the area of food production,” he said.
Ayoola Oduntan, Group Managing Director of Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery Limited, emphasized that Nigeria cannot progress without prioritising agriculture and making it central to national development.
