Agric Minister, Kyari Laments as Nigeria Spends $10 Billion Annually on Food Imports
Nigeria spends over $10 billion each year on food imports, including wheat, rice, sugar, fish, and tomato paste, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has disclosed.
Kyari made the revelation on Tuesday during the First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. 2025 Agric and Export Expo in Lagos. Represented by his Special Adviser, Mr. Ibrahim Alkali, the minister expressed concern over the nation’s heavy reliance on imported food and emphasized the urgent need to increase financing for local agriculture to boost production and exports.
“Nigeria spends over $10 billion annually importing food such as wheat, rice, sugar, fish, and even tomato paste,” he said. “Agriculture already contributes 35 per cent to our Gross Domestic Product and employs 35 per cent of our workforce. Yet, despite sitting on 85 million hectares of arable land and having a youth population where over 70 per cent are under the age of 30, Nigeria accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of global agro-exports.”
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Kyari further highlighted that the country currently earns less than $400 million from agricultural exports, noting that enhancing domestic production and export capacity is key to building a non-oil export economy.
He reiterated President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to achieving food sovereignty, stressing that Nigeria must be able to feed itself independently and resist excessive reliance on imports.
“Food sovereignty means ensuring that no Nigerian goes hungry due to shocks in global food supply chains. It is about empowering every community to thrive based on our land, our people, and our productivity,” Kyari explained. “Boosting domestic production and supporting exports are two sides of the same coin. We have the land, labor, and markets. What we need is a structured system of financing, value addition, and infrastructure to turn potential into prosperity.”
The minister called for innovative approaches to strengthen food security, including performance-linked agricultural financing, forward contracts, and Pay-as-Harvest schemes, stressing that such models have proven effective in other economies.
“Nigeria can achieve more if we think critically and implement mechanisms that enhance agricultural financing and productivity,” he added.
By PRNigeria
