Despite possessing 85 million hectares of arable land and a predominantly youthful population, Nigeria continues to haemorrhage $10 billion annually on food imports while earning less than $400 million from agricultural exports, highlighting a massive economic opportunity gap. Agriculture Minister Senator Abubakar Kyari revealed these stark figures during First Bank of Nigeria‘s 2025 Agricultural and Export Expo in Lagos on Tuesday, exposing the contradiction between Nigeria’s agricultural potential and its current import dependency.
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The minister, represented by Special Adviser Ibrahim Alkali, noted that agriculture already contributes 35 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and employs 35 percent of the workforce, yet the country accounts for less than 0.5 percent of global agricultural exports.
“Nigeria spends over 10 billion dollars annually importing food such as wheat, rice, sugar, fish and even tomato paste,” Kyari stated, describing the massive outflow of foreign exchange on items that could potentially be produced locally.
With over 70 percent of Nigeria’s population under age 30, Kyari argued that the country possesses the demographic advantage necessary for agricultural transformation but lacks appropriate financing systems to unlock this potential.
The minister linked the import dependency crisis to President Tinubu’s food sovereignty agenda, arguing that true sovereignty requires domestic production capacity free from global supply chain vulnerabilities.
“President Tinubu’s administration has made it clear that food sovereignty is the goal. Nigeria must not only feed itself, but to do so on its own terms, free from excessive dependency on imports,” he explained.
Kyari identified systematic financing gaps as the primary barrier preventing Nigeria from converting its agricultural potential into prosperity. He called for transitioning from fragmented farmer credit systems to structured financial mechanisms capable of attracting significant capital investment.
The minister advocated for innovative financing approaches, including performance-triggered agricultural goals, forward contracts, and Pay-as-Harvest systems, describing these as proven mechanisms working in other economies.
“Sovereignty means ensuring that no Nigerian goes hungry because of shocks in the global food supply chain, allowing every community to stand on the strength of our land, our people and our productivity,” Kyari stated.
He stated that boosting domestic production and building export capacity represent “two sides of the same coin” rather than separate policy objectives, requiring coordinated approaches to financing, value addition, and infrastructure development.
The minister called for strategic shifts from oil dependency toward agricultural resilience, from rural commodity exports to value-added agribusiness, and from stereotyped perceptions to improved youth participation in agriculture.
Kyari concluded that Nigeria’s agricultural transformation requires critical thinking and improved mechanisms around revenue sharing, agricultural financing, and performance management to realise the sector’s full economic potential.
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