Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima has unveiled the $500 million Niger Delta Agricultural Investment Fund, aimed at transforming agriculture in the region and strengthening the country’s food security efforts.
Shettima launched the fund on Wednesday in Abuja during the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit, jointly convened by the Office of the Vice President and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The Vice President described the initiative as a significant milestone for a country whose economic foundation was built on agriculture before the discovery of oil.
According to him, Nigeria cannot afford to overlook the opportunities presented by an agricultural resurgence.
Shettima said that while nations depend on various resources, their long-term survival depends on their ability to feed themselves.
He noted that agriculture remains not only the foundation of civilisation but also a critical pillar of political stability.
“Before a people raise cities, they must learn to feed them, and before a state earns the loyalty of its citizens, it must secure their daily bread.
“The groundnut pyramids of the North, the cocoa estates of the West, and the palm produce of the East and the Delta financed our earliest schools and hospitals and underwrote the young institutions of a new republic.”
The Vice President expressed regret that the oil boom created a sense of comfort that weakened the country’s agricultural drive, causing Nigeria to move from being a food-producing nation to relying on imports for products that could be grown locally.
He, however, commended the Niger Delta region for embracing the Agricultural Investment Fund Initiative, describing it as a return to the region’s historic role in agriculture and commerce.
“What makes this vision inspiring is that it arises from a region that could have rested on its oil wealth and left feeding the nation to other hands.
“The Niger Delta has instead chosen to return to an identity older than crude itself, for the palm oil of these creeks fuelled the commerce of continents long before the first barrel was drilled.
“It has chosen to transform this region, feed the nation, and attract the world. This is where philosophy must give way to action.”
Shettima explained that the fund would operate as a commercial, returns-driven investment vehicle covering key agricultural value chains, including aquaculture, palm oil, cassava, cocoa, rice, horticulture, marine resources and livestock.
“And palm oil to cassava, cocoa, rice, horticulture, marine resources, and livestock.
“Around it, we coordinate the commitments already pledged by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and our private and commercial financiers.
“Above both stands the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Council, which I am honoured to chair, with the NDDC as its Secretariat.
“Beneath it lies a demand-side strategy preparing bankable projects across all nine mandate states.”
The Vice President highlighted that food security has remained a major priority of President Bola Tinubu’s administration since it assumed office in 2023.
“On assumption of office in 2023, President Bola Tinubu placed food security among the earliest priorities of his administration.
“The idea was driven by the understanding that ‘nations that lose control of their food eventually surrender control of their future.’
“His July 2023 declaration of a state of emergency shifted our national approach from the boardroom to the ground, across production, market stabilisation, and food access,” he stated.
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