‘Oil Price Fall Can Aid Exports’

It has been observed
that the current devaluation of the naira can favour the agricultural sector especially in terms of export opportunities.
The observation was made recently in Lagos State by Novus Agro,  a private company that uses technology to provide market access to farmers.
Making the observation, Novus Agro’s Strategy Manager, Obiajuru Luya, noted that agriculture has remained resilient in spite of the oil price slide and recent devaluation of the naira.
He said prices of most staples have been stable in spite of instability in other sectors such as drop in oil prices (devaluation of the naira, insurgency amongst others.
She said this was largely due to increase in domestic production of commodities even as she added that more youths and people in general are becoming interested in running agricultural businesses largely due to government’s evangelism on the obvious potentials inherent in the sector.
Explaining that agriculture is no longer about hoes and cutlasses but about mechanised farming, fueled with relevant data, statistics and technology. Luya pointed out that mobile technology was what aided the transparency and dynamics of fertilizer distribution in the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme, initiative of the federal government.
“The relevance of mobile technology in a sector like ours cannot be over-emphasised, that has been the backbone of our business over the years in terms of transfer of real time information, identifying and reaching farmers, our enumeration, trade facilitation and indeed all aspects of our business”, she said.
According to her, more people see the relevance of price data and the need to get insights  from it to function effectively at different levels and in different value chains from production to processing of end user products, planning and budgetary committees are not left out.

Member, Rivers State House of Assembly and House of Representative aspirant for Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency, Hon Aye Atamah Pepple, representing Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuke Amaechi (middle) harvesting plantain during St. Andrew’s Anglican Church Bakana 2014 Adult Harvest Thanksgiving Service. Photo: Egberi A. Sampson