Investment: Agric Gets More Attention

Mr Mustafa Bello, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), said the agriculture sector attracted a lot of investments in terms of value addition in 2009.

Mustafa told The Tide’s source in Abuja on Friday that although investments in other sectors had increased, the agriculture sector had attracted more to meet the challenges of the local and international markets.

“This is good because with agriculture, we need food security and then of course, we need to add value so that we make more out of what is produced and the farmer can be assured of his profit,’’ he said.  According to him, agriculture, infrastructure and knowledge are the key sectors, if well harnessed, the entire economy can cling to them and growth can be assured.

Mustafa said agriculture needed to be developed so that the yield could be improved continuously to ensure that farmers generate more income from their efforts.

tonnes, then you are improving.

“Also the consumers will be getting the products cheaper and the economy is better for it,’’ he said.

Mustafa said most manufacturing companies in agricultural products were adding value to their products and even expanding to other areas.

He said apart from large companies, smaller ones were also adding value to agricultural products such as cassava, yams and plantain, by turning them into power form or into chips for both local and international consumption.

“When you add value to agricultural products, they will need to be processed into semi finished and finished states before local consumption or for export,’’ he said.