Adesina made the revelation during Nigerian Pilot Newspapers’ Leadership Forum, in Abuja.
He said, “Under the present administration, we’ve ended 40 years of corruption in the fertiliser sector within 90 days in the country, by removing the government from buying, selling or distributing fertiliser to farmers. Everything was returned to the private sector, as it should be.
“There was a lot of fraud as those supplying the fertiliser bring 50 per cent of the product mixed with sand. The system was so corrupt that people were selling grains as crops to farmers.”
He added, “Our productivity was very low because of the corruption in the system and because the use of improved variety seeds by the farmers was very low. This system also displaced the private sector, as seeds and fertiliser companies stopped their investment in the sector.
“The government was the one procuring and distributing fertilisers to the farmers. This is not the role of government, because it does not buy and distribute Coca-Cola everywhere in the world.”
He said Nigeria was the first country in the world to launch the electronic wallet system for distributing farm inputs to farmers at subsidized rates, to check fraud and enhance efficiency.
He said other countries, such as India, Brazil, Argentina and China had come to learn about the system in Nigeria.
“At the World Economic Forum on Africa,” he said, “many countries, including Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Ghana, came to Nigeria. Even the Africa Union has said that the electronic wallet system would be done by every single African country, in order to end corruption in the seeds and fertiliser sector.”
According to the UK government, he said, Nigeria was the first in the world to execute such innovation, “and this shows that we are innovating Agric system in the country”.
On fertiliser, $5 billion investment came to fertiliser companies in Nigeria last year. We see this as a big opportunity coming largely from the Indorama with $1.3billion; Notore ($1.2billion) and Aliko Dangote that is putting $2.5billion.
He said in the next three, Nigeria would be a net exporter of fertiliser and that the prices would come down. This, he said, would be made possible with the withdrawal of government in the procurement and distribution of the inputs.
Adesina said when he started in 2011, there were only five seed companies, “but now we have 80 seed companies in the country, including Syngentta, which is the largest seed company in the world”.
He said Syngentta had already opened offices in the country and had engaged 80 staff members, adding that “every big company wanted to be here because of the impacts we are making in agriculture”.
nigerianpilot.com
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