At UN food summit, Shettima tells foreign investors Nigeria ready for business

Vice President Kashim Shettima has urged foreign investors to take advantage of opportunities in Nigeria, stressing that the country is ready for business.

He noted that the combination of Nigeria’s young, energetic population and agenda of the new administration, places the country ahead of others in the region.

Shettima disclosed this, yesterday, in his remarks during a side event at the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit, themed ‘Scaling up of multi-stakeholder collaboration and investments in implementation of food systems pathways in Nigeria’.

According to the Vice President, Nigeria has the capacity to transform its demographic advantage into dividends.

“Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation on earth, and the population is young. The median age is 19. With determined leadership and support of the global community, we believe, as eternal optimists do, that there is hope on the horizon,” he said.

He also expressed hope that the expected transformation could take place on the back of what he described as “building blocks that already exist in Nigeria.”

He said: “They include government’s recent declaration of a state of emergency on food security, moving food and water to the purview of the National Security Council; the country’s renewed commitment to food and nutrition since the Nutrition Conference of 2022; the National Food and Micro-Nutrient Intake Survey; and the National State Level Food Systems.”

Speaking on improving collaboration between government and the private sector, Vice President Shettima said: “Focusing on agribusiness and understanding that investment that will transform food systems will come from the private sector (with the government providing an enabling environment), will scale up investment in the country.”

He explained further: “The Nigerian government, together with domestic and international finance institutions, scaled up the Value Chain Development Programme approach for the Special Agro Processing Zones Programme with an impressive investment of $521 million from the IFAD, from the IsDB, and from the AfDB. The success story of the value chain development programme speaks for itself.”

He added that the programme “has empowered 100,000 small scale farmers to enter into engagement with some of the food marketing companies in the world, enabling them to lift their families out of poverty.”