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By Agatha Emeadi
The Director of Agribusiness Incubation Centre, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Dr Philips Nto, has described the recent three percent growth in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP)as poor and insufficient compared to its agricultural potentials.
He said if the country had paid much attention to value chain addition in agriculture, the economy would have frog jumped into being the largest economy in Africa.
Dr Nto was reacting to the latest National Bureau of Statistics report regarding the growth of the economy in the first quarter of the year, ollowing the rebasing of the GDP from 2019 to 2024.
He noted that if the rebased sum of N205 trillion is denominated in dollars, it means that the country didn’t record any significant growth in the economy.
“The rebased sum amounts to only US$250 billion, that is a serious drop compared to that of South Africa and Egypt, both of which stand at over 380 billion dollars respectively,” he argued.
According to him, “The projected growth rate of three percent is not befitting for a country with enormous agricultural potentials such as arable land of 70 million hectares and water for irrigation as well as high population 230 million people to support farm labour and market.”
Dr Nto, who is a former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in Abia State, lamented that when compared to US 574 billion Nigeria recorded in 2014, the current figure of US250 billion is abysmal.
He said that if the country had paid attention to the value chain addition in agriculture, such a loss of more than US$30 billion in post harvest handling and the negative impact on the GDP would have been averted.
The director advocated enhanced agricultural policy formulation and implementation that would aid the growth of the economy.
He noted that even the three percent achievement being celebrated by Nigeria came through services and non-oil sector, excluding agriculture, which recorded a mere 0.7 growth.
“If we have good policies in place in the agricultural sector, Nigeria’s economy will overtake that of South Africa and reclaim its pride of place as the giant of Africa,” he submitted.
Dr Nto urged both the federal and state governments to encourage more investments in the agricultural value chain addition as a means of boosting both the GDP and the economy generally.
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