Nigeria spends N1 trn yearly on agric commodities—Nnoli-Edozien

The Founder/President, Growing Businesses Foundation (GBF), Dr Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, says Nigeria spends N1 trillion yearly on agricultural commodities. Nnoli-Edozien,who made this known on Saturday in Abuja, at a dinner, tagged, “Celebrating Enterprise’’, said the statistics was an indication that agriculture could create wealth as well as jobs.
“We have not really taken our time to break it into the different agro chain. Technology is also very important as this will aid us to achieve this purpose,’’ she said. The GBF partners Micro-Finance Institutions in Nigeria as intermediaries to make funds available to entrepreneurs. Citing bread, which is made from wheat as an instance, she said that Nigeria was contributing greatly in growing the businesses of other countries through the importation of the commodity. She commended the Federal Government’s directive that bakers include 10 per cent cassava flour in the baking of bread.
Nnoli-Edozien said the policy would save Nigeria huge foreign exchange and encourage Nigerian farmers to cultivate more cassava. “We all eat bread and anytime we do that, we are growing other people’s businesses abroad. Our farmers don’t grow wheat so we should stand up and say we do not want wheat anymore but cassava,’’ she said. Nnoli-Edozien said that GBF was determined to succeed in empowering and inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs.