The National Agriculture Development Fund (NADF) has emphasized the critical role of private sector investment in transforming Nigeria’s agricultural sector and ensuring food security.
Speaking at the Private Sector Engagement on Building Productive and Resilient Food Systems in Nigeria, NADF’s Executive Secretary, Muhammed Abu Ibrahim, called for deeper partnerships to drive efficiency, innovation, and sustainability in agriculture.
The engagement, organised by the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit (PFSCU) and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), provided a platform to discuss strategies for strengthening agricultural value chains, improving financing mechanisms, and leveraging private investment to scale food production and processing.
Representing the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Ibrahim reaffirmed the government’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for private sector investment in agriculture.
“Agriculture in Nigeria cannot thrive without full private sector participation. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that policies, incentives, and financing mechanisms support private investments,” he stated.
Since its establishment, NADF has focused on bridging the financing gap in agriculture, developing tailored financial solutions, and attracting both public and private capital to strengthen agricultural value chains.
“In the past year, we have made significant progress in areas such as blended finance models, agricultural guarantee mechanisms, value chain-specific funding products, and climate-resilient financing,” Ibrahim noted.
He highlighted ongoing partnerships with financial institutions like NIRSAL to reduce lending risks and collaborations with international organizations like GIZ to develop climate-smart and gender-inclusive agricultural financing frameworks.
Ibrahim stressed that while the government plays a facilitative role, true agricultural transformation depends on private sector leadership.
He identified key areas where private investment is urgently needed, including Scaling Agri-Fintech Solutions, Investing in Agro-Processing and Storage, Strengthening Input Supply Chains and Enhancing Market Access.
“NADF is committed to co-investing with the private sector to ensure that capital flows into critical areas of agriculture. NESG has the capacity and convening power to drive these partnerships, and we are ready to collaborate to make this vision a reality,” he added.
Ibrahim urged stakeholders to move beyond challenges and focus on opportunities that can make agriculture a thriving economic driver for Nigeria.
“If we align our strengths—government policy direction and financing on one hand, and private sector efficiency and innovation on the other—we can build a food system that is productive, resilient, and globally competitive,” he emphasised.
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