Business
Akinwumi Adesina, the man behind the reviving and mordernizing of Nigeria’s agriculture and breaking the “oil curse”
Investors both local and foreign such as food giant Cargill, seed company Syngenta, brewer SABMiller and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote are planning to build everything from fertilizer plants to food processing factories.
Nigerian billionaire Dangote has pledged to spend US$35 million on a tomato paste plant in the northern city of Kano and $45 million in Cross River state to process pineapple juice.
Adesina says he has received US$8 billion in commitments but such promises are often not kept in Nigeria. Cargill and SABMiller told reporters they are only “considering” investing.
“I would estimate that no more than one dollar of investment actually occurs for every US$100 of announced commitments,” said Fola Fagbule, an Africa-focused investment banker in Lagos.
A central bank initiative has issued guarantees on around 25 billion naira (US$154 million) of agriculture loans since it began in July last year, lifting lending to the sector to around 4 percent of total loans, from 1.5 percent at end-2009, the bank says.
This barely scratches the US$10 billion Adesina says the sector needs by 2015. Smallholders say banks still don’t lend to them, while the scheme doles out cheap money to big firms.
A few success stories nonetheless give cause for optimism.
