The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a five-year agribusiness investment programme that targets $300 million for seven states of Nigeria.
The Feed the Future programme will facilitate $200 million in new lending and $100 million in new investment across the five crops in Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi and Cross River States.
It is also aimed at integrating thousands of micro small and medium enterprises and producer organisations as commercial actors in the rice, maize, soybeans, aquaculture and cowpea value chains.
The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington, said that the world cares about Nigeria because of Nigeria’s size and population.
“Nigeria is great because the number is big, but if that big number does not have equally big opportunities, dreams and equally big crops and livestock production, then what looks great in a distance can become a challenge. The goal of this project is to mobilize $300 million of investment in [Nigeria] agriculture,” he said.
Ambassador Symington said through the initiative, “the US government aims to work with the people of Nigeria to improve the ease of doing business in the agricultural sector, mitigate the risk to lending institutions and promotes investment opportunities for agribusiness to expand and scale up their operations.”
The project will run from December 2018 to December 2023 with the US government through USAID Feed the Future initiative providing $15.7 million for the activity to be implemented by Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA).
MM/GIK/APA