Nigeria: boosting innovative private sector-led solutions

15 September 2022. The Sahel Food Systems Changemakers Conference 

Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the European Union, and with support from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), convened the first Sahel Food Systems Changemakers Conference in Abuja. 

The event themed Curbing the Nigerian Food Crisis: Ensuring Resilience and Sustainability in the Agribusiness Landscape attracted over 300 participants across the public, private, donor, non-profit and civil society sectors.

It aimed to address the issues of the Nigerian food and agriculture sector by boosting innovative private sector-led solutions toward improving local economies and livelihoods in an environmentally sustainable manner. It brought together government officials, development partners, agribusiness leaders and industry experts from various value chains to pool ideas for interventions, and strategies to create and support sustainable business models for accelerated growth.

The objectives were to:

• Identify critical steps to curtailing the food crisis by taking lessons from Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine-Russia.
• Highlight success factors for developing private sector-led initiatives to drive transformation in the Nigerian agribusiness landscape.
• Highlight emerging solutions and innovative business models in the agri-food landscape to promote resilience in food systems.
• Facilitate dialogue between stakeholders on the urgent need to position private sector-led strategies as a sustainable option for a resilient food system.
• Develop a clear roadmap for multi-sector collaborations to curtail the food crisis in Nigeria

The conference identified critical steps to address the food crisis taking lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. It highlighted success factors for developing private sector-led initiatives to drive transformation in the Nigerian agribusiness landscape, showcased emerging solutions and innovative business models in the agri-food landscape to promote resilience in the food systems, and facilitated dialogue between stakeholders on the urgent need for private sector-led strategies as a sustainable option for a resilient food system. The conference also initiated the conversation towards developing a clear road map for multistakeholder collaboration to curtail the existential food crisis in Nigeria.

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1. Primary Production
Facilitator: Foluso Adejoro, Policy Advisor Food Security & Climate Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Abuja, Nigeria

2. Food Processing
Facilitator: Ms. Emma Odundo, GIZ

3. Distribution & Logistics
Facilitator: Mr. Kamaldeen Raji, MD, AFEX

4. Trade
Facilitator: Dr. Ezra Yakusak, NEPC

5. Safety & Security: Addressing insecurity in farming communities.
Facilitator: Dr. Bola Karimu, Private Sector Development Adviser, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)

6. Nutrition
Facilitator: Dr. Michael Ojo, Country Director, GAIN Nigeria

7. Livestock
Facilitator: Ms. Fisayo Kayode, Productivity Improvement Manager,
Sahel Consulting

8. Equity and Inclusion:
Facilitator: Mr. Andrew Smith, GIZ

9. Starting and scaling Resilient Agribusinesses

Facilitator: Mr. Deji Adebusoye, Sahel Capital