Nigeria spends $10bn yearly on food imports, says Kyari

Nigeria spends more than $10 billion annually on food imports despite its vast agricultural potential, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, has said.

Speaking at the First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. 2025 Agric and Export Expo in Lagos on Tuesday, Kyari, represented by his Special Adviser, Mr Ibrahim Alkali, warned that the country’s rising agro-import bill was unsustainable and called for urgent financing reforms to boost local production and exports.

According to him, Nigeria imports wheat, rice, sugar, fish and even tomato paste worth over $10 billion each year, yet earns less than $400 million from agricultural exports. This, he said, was unacceptable for a country where agriculture already contributes 35 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 35 per cent of the workforce.

“Nigeria sits on 85 million hectares of arable land with over 70 per cent of its population under the age of 30, but the nation accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of global exports. To build a sustainable non-oil economy, we must rethink how we finance agriculture,” Kyari stated.

He reiterated that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was committed to achieving food sovereignty by reducing dependency on imports and insulating Nigerians from global food supply shocks. “Food sovereignty means Nigeria must not only feed itself but do so on its terms,” he said.

The minister stressed that unlocking the sector’s potential required moving from fragmented farmer credit to structured financial systems capable of attracting significant capital.

He emphasised the need for value addition, improved infrastructure, forward contracts and innovative financing mechanisms such as Pay-as-Harvest models to drive agricultural productivity.

“We have the land, the labour and the market. What we lack are the systems of financing and infrastructure that convert potential into prosperity. Boosting domestic production and building support for exports are two sides of the same coin,” he added.

Kyari maintained that with critical thinking and proper financing mechanisms, Nigeria could strengthen food security and significantly increase its share in global agro-exports.