President Buhari has reiterated his call on youths in Nigeria
to seize opportunities in agriculture, a sector of the
economy he said is already proving to be the bedrock of the
nation’s new economy.
Speaking on Monday at Blair House, Washington DC after his
White House engagements with President Donald Trump,
the President, at a meeting the Chief Executive Officers of
six American agricultural companies and their Nigerian
counterparts including Aliko Dangote and John
Coumantaros, again lamented the challenges of the
country’s youth bulge, with “sixty per cent of the population
below 30 years.”
He said the country must help the young people to plan their
future and urged them to explore opportunities easily
accessible in agriculture because, as he said, “agriculture is
the future.” While stressing that planning in Nigeria must
take into consideration the factors of climate and a bulging
youth population, President Buhari also promised the
support of his administration in the promotion of skill
development, innovation and entrepreneurship among the
young population.
According to him, “We realized, rather belatedly that we
ought to have been investing in agriculture. We are now
aiming at food security because of our large population. Our
youths, the ones who have gone to school and even those
that have not, should go to the farm, to earn respect for
themselves. Agriculture is providing jobs for millions of our
citizens and we are doing well towards the attainment of
food security and jobs. The media may not appreciate the
work we are doing but we will shock them by the success
we are recording.”
President Buhari welcomed the several investment
proposals being put in place by the Americans and their
Nigerian counterparts. Among those brought up for
discussions were the three million tons fertilizer by Dangote,
the largest in Africa coming on stream in July, to be
followed by another one to produce 1.4 million tons of the
commodity; a large-scale modern seed production
company, and weed and pest management and chemicals
products companies by the Americans.
Similarly, the Burger King food chain with plans to integrate
local farmers in livestock production; the Heinz tomatoes
production, with backward integration of Nigerian tomato
farmers; and another company coming to set up a local
branch to facilitate merchandising of commodities, in effect
establishing a link between the Nigerian producers and the
global market.
A tractor manufacturing company, John Deer, also unfolded
a plan for an assembly plant to produce 10,000 tractors in
four years in Nigeria. They will all come with jobs for
Nigerians. In a second business meeting same day,
President Buhari brought together Nigerian businessmen
and their American counterparts from the U.S Chamber of
Commerce and the Corporate Council on Africa, (CCA.)
The U.S Chamber, on behalf of its three million member-
companies which included General Electric, Chevron,
Proctor and Gamble and Boeing aircraft manufacturers,
expressed happiness with improved security in the Niger
Delta, reforms in the economy leading to ease in doing
business, and the war the administration is waging against
corruption.
Several of the oncoming plans were disclosed to the
President who demanded concrete plans and an aggressive
timetable for their actualization. He envisaged that the
investment schemes will lead to a lot of new opportunities
for the Nigerian youth.
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