Vice President Kashim Shettima yesterday launched the $500 million Niger Delta Agricultural Investment Fund, describing it as a landmark initiative that aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s drive to strengthen food security, attract private investment, and diversify Nigeria’s economy.
 
Speaking at the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit, jointly organised by the Office of the Vice President and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Shettima said agriculture remains the bedrock of national prosperity and political stability.
 
He noted that although countries may derive wealth from different natural resources, enduring nations are those capable of feeding their people.
 
“Agriculture is not merely the foundation of civilisation; it is the first guarantee of political stability. Before a people raise cities, they must learn to feed them, and before a state earns the loyalty of its citizens, it must secure their daily bread,” he said.
 
The Vice President recalled that Nigeria’s early economic prosperity was built on agriculture, with the groundnut pyramids of the North, cocoa plantations in the West and palm produce from the East and Niger Delta financing public infrastructure before crude oil became the country’s main source of revenue.
 
He lamented that the discovery of oil gradually weakened the country’s agricultural base, saying Nigeria abandoned the productive culture that once made it self-sufficient in food.
 
Shettima, however, praised the Niger Delta for refusing to rely solely on its oil resources, as the region returned to agriculture as a pathway to sustainable prosperity.
 
“What makes this vision inspiring is that it comes from a region that could have rested on its oil wealth and left feeding the nation to others. Instead, the Niger Delta has chosen to return to an identity older than crude oil itself. Long before the first barrel was drilled, palm oil from these creeks powered commerce across continents,” he said.
 
Officially inaugurating the fund, the Vice President described it as a commercially driven, returns-based investment vehicle covering the entire agricultural value chain, including aquaculture, palm oil, cassava, cocoa, rice, horticulture, livestock and marine resources.
 
He disclosed that the initiative would coordinate financing commitments from multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as private investors and commercial financiers.
 
Shettima also announced the establishment of the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Council, which he will chair, with the NDDC serving as its secretariat to oversee implementation across the region’s nine states.