NABG calls on Nigeria to tap into Halal food industry

Nigeria Agribusiness Group, NABG, has called on Nigerian agribusiness firms to tap into the fast-growing Halal food industry as a way to boost food production and strengthen the agribusinesses space.

The President, NABG, Arc Kabir Ibrahim, made the call ahead of the Makkah Halal Forum to hold between 14th and 16th February, 2026, in Saudi Arabia.

Ibrahim expressed optimism that “Nigerian enterprises should participate in order to see what is happening and model it in Nigeria to attract Africa’s huge market sprouting from AfCFTA.”

According to him, the array of exhibitors panelist and participants with varied experiences as well as food producers engaged in cooking competitions and award winners that will all converge in the Makkah Exhibitions Centre to provide immense opportunities for participants.

“The offerings in the Halal Forum are immense and Nigeria can key into that to cut a niche’ in the Halal foods industry that is poised to dominate global Agricultural food systems as we race towards 2030, the year we need to meet the 63 SDG goals. 

“Quite naturally global food security heavily relies on Africa due to its large unpolluted cultivable and irrigable land as well as its projected population of over 1,000,000,000 come 2050 with Nigeria accounting for nearly 50% of that population!

“Food is universal for mankind and the global population is racing towards 10,000,000,000 in 2050 which must be fed with wholesome and nutritiously balanced food for the globe to be food secure and less physically insecure due to poverty challenges.

“The impetus to provide the global food need is predicated on the scaling of the productivity of global Aagrifood systems and that’s where Africa comes in and Nigeria becomes a veritable player”, he said.

Meanwhile, the NABG boss noted that at “the Kampala declaration 2026-2035, which has already taken effect from 1st January,2026 will make Africa a formidable Africa agrifood systems influencer and Nigeria’s role is fully defined provided that all Agriculture stakeholders are included in the implementation of all the Declaration protocols.

“While Nigerian Small holder farmers, SHFs, and Small scale producers, SSPs, are groaning under high input costs and low prices of Agricultural produce the Makkah Halal Forum offers an opportunity to show case what Nigeria can export to the global Halal foods industry adjudged to become the world largest off-taker of agrifood.”

He also added that the “opportunities will turn the seeming challenges in Nigeria’s food system into low hanging fruits for the much desired inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction in Nigeria.”

He counseled that, “The Nigerian government, development partners and the private sector should pull resources together to address the scaling of all relevant commodities and their various value chains where Nigeria is adjudged to have significant comparative advantage.”