South Africa, Indonesia, others to partner Nigeria on agric projects
2012-03-23 15:36:14
South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia, Britain and Thailand have expressed their respective desires to partner with Nigeria in developing the agricultural sector of the nation’s economy.
Representatives of these countries, on Wednesday, at a media briefing to herald the forthcoming agriculture and food/beverage exhibition, said that Nigeria has emeged a viable place for investment.
South Africa’s High Commission’s Economic Counselor, Nick Coleman stated: “At a private business level, we are seeing some of Nigeria’s successful business people partnering with their South African counterparts. We would like to see more such partnerships and more Nigerian businesses coming into South Africa.” he added.
According to Coleman, agriculture is the engine that can kick start the economy if the right things are done as all that is need it the adoption of modern technology that is already available to boost the sector,
Also, Representative of South Korea’s Embassy in Nigeria, Bohyun Pyun said his country has been yearning to participate in Nigeria’s agriculture development drive .
“Many food and beverage companies have also expressed interest to exhibit their products as we have already started marketing the expo to them” Pyun said.
Representative of the Nigeria America Chamber of Commerce also expressed readiness to join the exhibition and described the event as a revolutionary one
President, Nigeria British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), Thomas Awagu, explained that the imminent threat of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa has presented a challenge to governments across the region and all well-meaning individuals, including corporate organizations.
He stressed that exhibition tagged AGRIKEXPO and FOODBEXT WEST AFRICA will bring together the best in the industry to a common venue where stakeholders will interact for the ultimate impact on standards and quality of agricultural productivity and food supply.
He added that an improved agricultural productivity of would impact youth unemployment, poverty alleviation, export earnings, overdependence on oil, rural urban drift, industrialization, and the overall economic health of the nation.
“AGRIKEXPO/FOODBEXT is coming at this very auspicious time. A scenario where over US$2 billion is spent annually on food imports is clearly unacceptable. Every support must be given to local production via sundry activities of government and private sector.” Awagu said.
Awagu noted that the exhibition, a vision of 151 Products Limited in partnership with the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce and AiQ Capital Management Limited will be an opportunity to seek an active support and participation of government in our project in order to show the right signals to the investing public.
“We must come to terms with the reality of attracting foreign investors into the sector, in view of the fact of modern agricultural technology and huge investment requirement.”
The major industry stakeholders expected as exhibitors, he added, include manufacturers of various agricultural food&beverage products, Research institutes banks, Government and ECOWAS countries.”
The forum, which will take place between the 27 till 29 of August had been described as a forum that would immensely redefine commercial agriculture in Nigeria and West Africa.