HOW  AGRIBUSINESS CAN ATTRACT  FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

By Eugene Goldman

The primary function of government in any nation around the world is not strenuous; it’s as simple as cutting a cake in a ceremony. We live in a multi-dynamos world that is full of opportunities, but the opportunity that agriculture brings appears to be more rewarding. According to Paul Chauffeur, ‘’agriculture turns soil and manure into gold!’’

Governments around the world strive to make life more enjoyable and easier to the citizens of their nation. There cannot be a better ideology of governance than to make life easier for the citizens. The best practice for governing a state is to create wealth for the people, and to manage wealth for the people, to encourage productivity and to boost the income per capita.

Before the nation can attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), it must fix the infrastructural gap of the nation. Infrastructure are the major drivers of every economy around the world. And there are nine major drivers of every economy, to which if the wrong policy framework are adopted, the economy will be epileptic. The nine major drivers of every economy are, the educational sector; security of life and property; the productive sector; the judicial system; foreign affairs; the monetary policy system; the fiscal policy regime; policy on social security; and provision of basic amenities like electricity, road, and water.

I believe strongly that if we must maintain our food chain and sustain our ecosystem, every human being alive should be involved in agriculture directly or indirectly. This is because the world’s human population is growing at an average of 7 percent every 10 years, which means that from now to 2032 the world population would be over 10billion people. With that, the demand for food and agricultural products will soar to a deficit of 27.9 percent below the current margin of food production and supply. The demand for agro-allied products would also increase by an alarming rate of 17.5 percent. If concerted effort is not taken to improve production of agricultural produce, there would be a global food crisis that will be catastrophic.

There is roughly 86 per cent of the world’s land mass that is suitable for agriculture in the African continent and about 46 per cent of that is in Nigeria. This gives us a huge potential to turn manure and soil into a wealth stream for our citizens and for the commonwealth. Nigeria needs to encourage farmers with the right incentives. I would like to applaud the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria, through NIRSAL Microfinance bank in supporting small and medium scale agricultural ventures with credit facilities that have well-tailored terms, which will enable farmers to go on with their businesses without let or hindrances. Because, the major challenges that farmers go through in Nigeria include, being able to  secure funds to farm, transportation, and high cost of using broadband.

Because of the cost of funds in the capital market, agric companies are using investment schemes to create value-chains to bring in funds into their farming operations in order to reach their goals. And continue with the production of food and other agricultural produce. The best of these companies are those who have their funds managed by investment bankers, and mutual fund companies, like Flora And Fauna Joint Ventures Limited. They have an awesome and mutually beneficial investment portfolio that helps maintain their value-chain, and pay their investors handsomely.

Everyone can be involved in agriculture, but not directly as a farmer. You can be an investor while others farm, and at harvest season everyone smiles to the bank. Hunger strikes or food crises are worse than any epidemic. If you are not farming, then it is wise for us all to invest in the farming companies who offer investment opportunities to both the public and to corporate Nigeria in order to maintain our food cycles and to checkmate the coming global food catastrophe. If we want to bring in FDI into the economy through the agricultural sector, we must look into the security situation of the nation. There are many agricultural companies in South-Korea, Russia, the US, Germany, the Netherlands and the likes who wish to come into Nigeria and invest or partner with local firms to do agric business. Statistics show that agriculture has the potential to boost or GNI by 28 per cent. The agricultural sector and the agro-allied industry in Nigeria can transform our economy and create jobs.