Nigeria Spends $2 Billion Annually On Wheat
By Rosemary Oguh
 7th NOV 2006

Nigeria relies on importation of wheat to the tune of $2 billion annually to feed its 150 million population. Former National Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Audu Ogbe, disclosed this at the Annual Accountant conference organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

Speaking on, “Agriculture in Nigeria: The Undiscovered Green Gold.”, he noted that, “because we failed to connect our oil fortune with the development of  agriculture, we are today dependent on other agriculture economies for wheat,  sugar, milk, salt, rice, tomato paste, chocolates, vegetable oils and until recently  chicken and fruit juices, bathing soaps, creams, and so forth. It is estimated that we spend a whooping amount of  $2 billion importing about 6 million tons of wheat,  $750 million on rice, $700 million on sugar $500 million on milk and milk products. This is not to mention some 23,000 tons of tomato paste coming in, palm oil from Malaysia and palm kernel oil from nearby Ghana. The tragedy is that with every ship load of these items arriving at our ports, thousands of job opportunities evaporate, so poverty increases, the crime rate rises and much to our collective grief, social discontent spreads.”

Explaining the factors responsible for the countries’ continued dependence on importation for its food needs, he observed, “Firstly, as earlier stated was; a philosophical maladjustment early in our economic life at the end of the first Republic, the oil era dawned and our orientation changed.

Nigeria became a nation of contractors. The Udoji award and one year salary arrears created the first craze for importation of soft comfort. We never recovered.

Secondly, the elite, all of us then developed scorn and total indifference for agriculture. The worst affected are the city-based tourist-inclined political elite who go home to harvest village votes return to the city and wait for the next election. For them, agriculture or any talk of it is nauseating drudgery. They show neither interest nor concern and to worsen matters, a vast majority of them are famously ignorant of the subject. The closest they get to agriculture is the importation of fertilizer and purchase of tractors and agro-chemicals, acts which in themselves are rewarding contract deals with immediate results for those so inclined. But there is much more to agriculture than fertilizer and agro chemicals.

The third and last of these problems is policy instability. The average tenure in most ministries is 18 months. This explains the constant somersaults in policy with disastrous impacts on agricultural output.”

Ogbe however averred that, “In spite of all of these constraints, agriculture is still a vast area of lucrative investment: fish farming, snail production, rice processing,  tomato paste, wheat production, milk processing, plantation development, dog rearing and many more, after vast opportunities for investment.”
 The solution to this he opined is, “Greater education of the political elite, better land preparation for farmers, more intensive seed and seed- stock research and lower  interest rates for all enterprises especially agriculture. Funding the 17 research institutes under the Ministry of agriculture is inevitable.”

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