Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima has secured another foreign investment deal for the country’s agricultural sector during his visit to the United States. An American company, John Deere, has agreed to set up a tractor assembly plant in Nigeria.
The company’s Vice President on Production Systems, Mr Jason Brantley, disclosed this during a meeting with Shettima and other Nigerian officials, including the Minister of Agriculture, Senator Abubakar Kyari, and the Chairman of Flour Mills of Nigeria, Mr John Coumantaros. The meeting was facilitated by Coumantaros, who is also a partner of John Deere in Nigeria.
Brantley said the company is interested in investing in Nigeria’s agricultural potential by providing tractor-clearing services for smallholder farmers across the country. He said the project will not require any government investment, but only credit guarantees to help make credit available at an affordable rate for interested persons or groups.
He also expressed the company’s readiness to immediately engage relevant authorities in Nigeria to actualise the objective of establishing the assembly plant.
The Vice President welcomed the company’s proposal and said Nigeria is committed to transforming agriculture as a pathway to tackling insecurity and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
He said mechanization is essential for achieving food self-sufficiency and listed three key elements for revitalizing the agricultural sector: certified seeds, mechanization, provision of fertilizer and agricultural extension services.
He also spoke about the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) project, which he said is designed to provide the infrastructure, platform and framework for the private sector to add value to Nigeria’s agricultural produce for the domestic, regional and global markets.
He assured the investors that Nigeria is now open for partnership and said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is very eager to see that the full potential of the Nigerian agricultural sector is realised.
He said Tinubu declared a food security emergency in August this year based on the fact that Nigeria is exposed to all the volatility and vulnerability in the world. He said this is why Nigeria is putting in place mechanisms to address challenges in the sector.
