Dr Tony Bello, Chairman Shine Bridge Global Inc., USA, a UNDP Agribusiness Specialist and the Senior Adviser on Agribusiness to the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, speaks with COLLINS NNABUIFE on the role the private sector could play in the nation’s agricultural sector if properly engaged. He also advised government on policy implementation.
DOES Nigeria have a national policy on food and agriculture industrialisation?
To the best of my knowledge, the closest to what we may refer to as “Nigeria’s National Policy on Food and Agriculture Industrialisation” is the concept of Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ) during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. Sadly, the subsequent administrations jettisoned the policy reforms and could not move forward passage of the SCPZ Draft Bill after its approval by the National Executive Council of the previous administration. This is rather unfortunate as policy summersault continues to plague different administrations in Nigeria.
Today, the good news is that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, appears to have embraced the concept of Special Agro-Processing Zones (SAPZ) in partnership with State governments, African Development Bank (AfDB), IFAD and The Islamic Bank of Nigeria. A big kudos to President Tinubu who recently directed the name change from Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS). This is consistent with shifting of mindset towards agriculture as a business to ensure food security and nutrition. However, there remains the urgent need for revamping the SCPZ and the establishment of SAPZ to ensure food and nutrition security, jobs and wealth creation opportunities.
The need for return to the era of Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) policy reforms cannot be overemphasized through engagement of millions of registered and verifiable smallholder farmers and the organised private sector to lead the design and implementation of Nigeria’s National Policy on Food and Agricultural Industrialization. The concepts of SCPZ and SAPZ are anchored on private sector engagement in agricultural value chains to create food surpluses(in addition to smallholder farmers outputs) and eliminate food waste through the adoption of modern farming practices and proven food preservation, processing and manufacturing practices. Herein lies the opportunity to ensure food and nutrition security in the choices we make of affordable and nutritious consumer-packaged goods (CPG) to promote health and wellness for all.
The ATA, I think, has forever changed the narrative that “agriculture is a business, not a development programme.” This gospel of “truth” preached by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina as Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria during ATA was intended to simply highlight that the business of agriculture (agribusiness) as defined by investing in agricultural value chain is key to ensuring food security and nutrition. Nobody eats agriculture, but we all eat the food produced through agricultural production and productivity. Dr Adesina’s gospel of ‘agriculture is a business, not a development programme’ was intentional, to cause a shift of mindset, that instead of focusing on the tool of the trade for producing food for food security, that we needed to focus on the business of agriculture.
With this, we have seen thousands of youths engaged in the business of agriculture over the past decade in Nigeria. The ATApolicy reforms opened up the mind of the younger generation, as they no longer see agriculture as leveraging hoes and cutlasses, but rather as agricultural fintech innovation, crowdfunding, tractorization, commodity trading, and the likes. In farming production, our youth now talk about electronic wallet (e-Wallet), GMO plant varieties and hybrids, soil health, carbon credit markets, nutrition, health and wellness, and the like. This shift in mindset must be embedded in any national agriculture and food policy reforms. We do agriculture to produce food, so let’s shift from an agricultural mindset to the end product, that is growing the indigenous food and beverage industry in Nigeria, the source of energy for daily survival of the human being, and for our health and wellness.
Today, we see foreign investors are taking advantage of our staple foods such as eba, fufu, tuwo, akpu, etc. by substituting our swallow foods traditionally made from cassava, yam, sorghum, millet and cocoyam with processed wheat, oats, potatoes and other grains and cereals. Therefore, the government must continue to invest in food processing innovations and commercialisation of local research findings through public-private partnerships and establishment of SAPZ/SCPZ across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Over the years, we have relied heavily on agricultural commodities such as cashew, sesame, palm oil, cocoa and others.
Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, but what have we done with that? Our export is less than $1 million for processed cassava products, so if the government is looking at enabling the environment for the private sector, our policy reforms must reflect understudying the role of consumer insights and trends, the role of food innovation and proven food science and technologies, the need for strategic partnerships and collaboration in addition to government’s role in creating the enabling infrastructure requirements to reduce the cost of goods sold as farm produce and as processed foods. The time has come when we must take advantage of the gluten-free and grain-free consumer and pet food trends in North America and Europe to export processed cassava products to meet the increasing demand for tapioca flours and starches. The gluten-free and grain-free pet foods global market is estimated at over $70 Billion by 2032.
Our import substitution policies must be strengthened to drive forex earnings by processing cassava and other roots and tubers into industrial functional food ingredients and consumer-packaged goods for local consumption and for export to capture the growing consumer trends for gluten-free and grain-free pet food products in North America, Europe, and Asia. The last but not the least big step the government of Nigeria at both the federal and state tiers must take to ensure food and nutrition security is by engaging the private sector, especially the experienced and proven professionals in the field, both at home and abroad. It is high time we stop trying to fit square pegs in round holes. It just doesn’t fit. Knowledge is power.
Government must go all out to find the best talents and most experienced and most content to help drive the design and implementation of national food and agricultural industrialisation policies at the Office of Mr. President. Government officials, professionals from across multidiscipline and industrial food manufacturing practitioners must come together as one to tackle the perennial issues and challenges of food insecurity in Nigeria. The organized private sector of food innovation professionals and practitioners must come together to form a formidable advisory council for the government of the day and do away with selfish and narrow interest for self only. We must come together to advocate for food security and nutrition for all because food security is equal to national security.
In terms of the global market demand, what is the role of Nigeria in turning comparative to competitive advantage?
Foreign investors come to Nigeria for the market. If in doubt, take a look at the emergence and growth of the food service and restaurant industry and the growing number of Hypermarkets and Supermarket channels in all major cities of Nigeria, from the north to the south and from the east to west. No wonder that Nigeria has become a net importer of consumer-packaged goods and food commodities over the years. Our food import bill, over the years, have consistently exceeded $20 billion, with four commodities commanding over $8 billion of the total food import bill, namely, sugar, wheat, fish and rice. So how do we change this? It is by taking a global view of consumer trends and demands for new and emerging foods for health and wellness. In this case, what comes to mind is turning our comparative advantage in cassava production into competitive market advantage through food preservation, processing and CPG manufacturing best practices.
If potatoes and processed potatoes can command over $25 billion global market size according to market research experts, then cassava and processed cassava products can command at least $2 billion of export market from Nigeria to North America and European markets. In fact, the current cassava market estimated at $4 billion is expected to grow to about $8 billion globally by 2032 according to some market research reports. What we are seeing in the global consumer market today is a drive towards health and wellness through the food we choose to consume every day. Whereas Thailand is commanding the $4 billion cassava market, the potential for gluten-free consumer-packaged foods and grain-free pet foods is projected to reach over $70 billion to $80 billion or more by 2032.
So, this is the time that the government of Nigeria through engagement of the organised private sector must come together to strategise and operationalise the cassava industrialisation programme towards specific export market targets. We have seen a good example with the revamping of the oil palm sub-sector in Edo State under the Edo State Oil Palm Programme through engagement of the organised private sector investments in oil palm plantations of over 50,000 hectares (Ha) and the subsequent processing and refining into crude palm oil and refined oils and oil fractions.
The opportunity for carbon credit market growth in Edo State is exemplary coming from less than eight years of private sector engagement. The time is now to elevate cassava as a cash crop for export by taking advantage of proven food science and technologies and beyond the cassava bread initiative and cassava bread fund. Cassava industrialisation in Nigeria serves as an excellent opportunity to transform high-quality cassava flour and cassava food grade starches beyond industrial ingredients for baked goods into functional food ingredients for replacement of corn starch modified and wheat flours in multiple food applications including baked goods such as pizza crusts, shawarma, salad dressings, noodles, mayonnaise, etc.
But first, government policy reforms must intentional engage with the organised private sector and professional, multi-disciplinary platforms to understanding the market opportunities for economic growth. Government can begin to sow the seed today for growth to elevate and boost the national economy through food export.
What can we do to enable competitiveness for industries?
As a social impact investor and advocate for food and agricultural policy reforms, my company, Shine Bridge Incorporated is seeking credible strategic partnerships in Nigeria, to join hands with us to take cassava industrialisation to scale in Nigeria through food innovation. We want to be sure that the food service industry and the industrial manufacturing sector are actually taking advantage of the global consumer demands for better and healthier new products derived from cassava. We believe that in five to 10 years from now here in Nigeria, we ought not be consuming cassava as partial or full replacement of imported wheat and wheat flours in baked goods. We have invested in R&D innovation that now enables the use of HQCF and Starch blends with Instant Tapioca Flakes in the formulation and manufacturing of ready-to-eat consumer-packaged foods that can compete against every packaged food that is produced from wheat, potato and corn.
We started by taking a global view of the consumer market trends and identifying investment opportunities to drive forex earnings in Nigeria. We found cassava to be that perfect fit for industrialisation and economic transformation. We are presently targeting the U.S. market demand for functional food ingredients such as the Instant Tapioca (cassava) flakes with functionality similar to cold water swelling corn starch modified and instant dehydrated potato flakes and potato granules. With lower glycemic index and other nutritional benefit, we are well positioned for a successful test market launch in the United States and in Nigeria effective Q4 2024 to Q4 2025.
Human capital remains our greatest competitive advantage in leading the cassava industrialszation programme in Africa, starting with Nigeria. We are food professionals and executives with proven track record in the U.S. food and beverage industry in taking ideas from conception to market. If we can do it in a foreign country, we surely can do better in Nigeria. This is our calling, to lead and support the growth of Nigeria’s food and beverage industries through food science and technology transfers to close the knowledge gap in food preservation, processing and manufacturing of ready-to-eat foods.
Together, let us take advantage of our best natural resources, our human capital to meet the market demand cassava-derived industrial food ingredients and CPG. With over 220 million people in Nigeria and over 1.2 billion people in Africa, let’s look beyond the AfCFT areas and towards the European, the American and Asia markets with cassava and cassava derivatives.
What do you think will be the role of the private sector strategic partnership in repositioning agriculture in Nigeria?
In the case example I have presented on ensuring successful cassava industrialization, we don’t have another five to 10 years for another agricultural transformation agenda to happen in Nigeria. The time is now for the administration of President Tinubu to grab the bull by the horn and run with it. The world needs cassava-derivatives in the form of functional food ingredients for manufacturing of better and healthier gluten-free and grain-free consumer goods and pet foods. Nigeria is in dire need of forex earnings and fighting against national and food insecurity threats. This is the eureka moment to engage all competent and experienced professionals with proven track records to inform, design, and implement Nigeria’s National Food and Agriculture Policy Reforms under public-private partnership co-investments. This is because the millions of smallholder farmers in Nigeria, the largest private sector group in the country must be seen and treated as business men and women.
When there’s sustainable demand, the farmers know more than enough to ensure the security of supplies to meet the demand of food processors and manufacturers. What the farmers are in need of is price stabilization of farm inputs and outputs, land clearing funding interventions, road safety and security of lives and properties as they engage in the business of agriculture. It is time to wean ourselves of corrupt practices by incentivizing the large scale private sector companies in the business of agriculture, food preservation, processing and manufacturing to ensure food and national security. Food security is equals national security.
In taking baby steps towards food and agricultural industrialization, the question then becomes how do we attract the brain power infrastructure of our country, both at home and in the diaspora? Personally, I started my career in the US food industry in 1990. Just imagine for a second the number of Nigerians today who are in the food and agricultural industry in the US and focusing on how government can harvest their brain power to transform Nigeria’s economy.
Perhaps, first, the government can begin the baby steps by creating a platform for diaspora community to bring their human capital and invest in- country. Let the national and sub-national governments create the enabling environment to begin to attract the human capital that is outside the country for effective turnaround of existing food and beverage factories. I have personally visited a number of food processing companies in Nigeria, most of them are operating at less than 50 percent of the installed capacity. When you ask, they will tell you that it is due to the lack of security of supply of raw materials, the lack of infrastructural development or the inconsistent government policies and regulations. But often at times, while those are factors to be considered, the primary reason may be due to lack of knowledge in product innovation and engineering operations.
There is the issue of knowledge gap, so as we return home from brain drain to brain gain, there’s need for us to work together and not to reinvent the wheel. How do we take advantage of those who are returning home, for me, it is through strategic partnerships and collaboration, the creation of organised private sector professional and practitioners’ groups. We are creating a new group called Nigeria’s Food Innovation and Industrial Manufacturing Group to bring multi-disciplinary approach to project execution, implementation, both in food innovation and industrial manufacturing at scale.
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