The Director General of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr. on Tuesday restated the group’s choice of agriculture as the theme for the 19th Economic Summit holding in Abuja.
Going by estimates, Nweke, who noted that the country spends about $5-$10 billion on importation of food annually as well as estimates that says 60 cents of every dollar earned as a country is spent on food importation, warned that “it undermines not just food security but in fact national security”.
Adding that “if you cannot feed yourself, I don’t know what else you can say as a human being, not to talk about as a nation. It is dangerous”
The former information minister said “ the choice of agriculture was very deliberate, very strategic because we think it holds the greatest promise for the diversification of Nigeria’s economy” as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast show held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja ahead of the 19th Nigeria Economic Summit.
He added that the group has realised that people are having considerable problems in accessing credit, equipment, market, storage and evacuation of goods “so all of these issues are going to be discussed in various sessions in the next three days”.
He said that an agricultural process “is not the business of the government, from a policy perspective of trying to create a conducive environment”.
He warned that the summit is not trying to usurp the function of the government but rather trying to ensure that entrepreneurs, citizens and commercial farmers put hands together to ensure that agricultural endeavours move forward in terms of investment and development.
He berated the over dependence on oil to generate revenue for the country noting that “it really makes our country vulnerable”.
With the theme “Growing Agriculture as a Business to Diversify Nigeria’s Economy”, he revealed that the 19th Summit further aims to change the general notion that agriculture is a “social service” but a “business”.
He further said that there are people, who on account of the new set of policies, the new initiatives, the programmes and the kind of push that has been given to agriculture under the current Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adeshina and President Goodluck Jonathan, have embraced agriculture and found it “feasible, viable, doable and profitable”.
