Private sector partnership vital to food sufficiency – Minister

Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has said that private sector partnership in the agriculture sector remained vital for the country to attain food sufficiency.

Ogbeh disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the Joint Sector Steering Committee (JSC), organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the agriculture ministry yesterday in Abuja.

He stated that it was imperative for the Federal Government to provide necessary infrastructure, control processes and oversight functions to support the private sector.

The minister, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed emphasized that the ministry was responsible to partner with major stakeholders to develop effective policies that will create conducive environment for better private sector participation in the sector.

According to him, the JSR was to provide a platform to assess the performance and results of the agriculture sector and assist government to set sector policies and priorities.

Ogbeh said: “The present administration has been able to put together an agriculture promotion policy. The purpose of the policy document is to provide a disciplined approach to building an agribusiness ecosystem that will stem the tide of food importation through import substitution so as to earn significant foreign exchange from agriculture.

“The private sector will remain in the lead while government facilitates, regulates as well as provides supporting infrastructure, system, control processes and oversight.

“It assesses how well stakeholders implemented pledges and commitment cooperation agreements in the sector. This objective is however consistent with the policy thrust of the present administration on agriculture.”

Citing instances of nations that have adopted, the minister recalled that the African Union Commission (AUC) in 2015, assisted 11 member nations which included Benin Republic, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

He added that the mentioned countries already took steps to strengthen mutual accountability based on findings of the JSRs conducted.

- The Nation