The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has said that it will work closely with the Federal Government in implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.
The National President of NACCIMA, Iyalode Alaba Lawson who made this known while delivering a lecture at the monthly forum organized by the Nigerian Association of Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Lagos Thursday disclosed that the plan had laid out two clear strategies under its agricultural programme namely: support the integrated transformation of the agricultural sector by boosting productivity of the crop and other subsectors and integrating the value chain while improving access to markets; use irrigable land and river basin infrastructure effectively to enable year-round agricultural production.
According to her,” In partnering with the government on the successful implementation of the ERGP, the association will engage the relevant MDAs involved to have them signify specific tasks and actions in line with these strategies that can be measured and monitored by the private sector in order to gauge the progress of the plan.
“NACCIMA is currently engaging the Ministry of Water Resources to allocate hectares to NACCIMA. This is required in the association’s drive towards reviving agricultural development along Nigeria’s river basins in line with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to open up a minimum of 100, 000 hectares of irrigable land through the 12 River Basin Development Authorities by 2020”.
Represented by the Chairman, NACCIMA Export Advocacy Group and Vice President OLAM Nigeria Limited, Ade Adefeko, NACCIMA boss stated that members continued to play a very vital role by contributing ideas for the overall growth of agricultural sector, information dissemination in terms of education and informing other members and non members on. opportunities in the sector and organizing and attending seminars, workshops and forums such as the NAAJ Monthly Forum in order to obtain and share knowledge.
Others according to Lawson included organizing and attending trade shows and exhibitions to improve market access as well as exploration of the use of technology and mechanization in agricultural practices.
“These are in line with overall goal of the association to pursue government-supported, private sector driven agriculture value chain development to make agriculture more productive, efficient and competitive and in order to provide enough quality produce for domestic consumption and export”, she submitted.
She added that agricultural sector was one of the major contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as a major source of employment for the rising class of unemployed youth across the country saying that the agricultural sector had shown consistent growth since the third quarter of 2016 despite the negative growth rate of Nigeria’s GDP.
“In Quarter 3, 2016, it increased by 4.54%, in Quarter 4 of 2016, it increased by 4.03%, by Quarter 1, 2017, it increased by 3.3% and this is an indication of a steady growth within the sector”, she said.
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