Sawubona Report Finds Linkages between Agricultural Transformation and Industrialisation

IKEJA, Nigeria - Nov. 14, 2013 - PRLog -- With Nigeria’s stellar GDP growth over the past couple of years, it is ironical that the country still struggles with high unemployment rates. Over the last five years, the Nigerian economy has grown at an average annual rate of 6.8%, but total unemployment currently stands at 23.9%. Youth unemployment is 60% and graduate unemployment is 80%. This paradox is the reality of Nigeria’s economy and one of the reasons adduced for this is the absence of a manufacturing base, which has the ability to provide profitable employment for more people.

Bearing this in mind, there is need for a shift towards industrialisation of the economy and there is evidence to show that the government is beginning to position agriculture as the trigger for this industralisation. This much was articulated in a brief titled, Agricultural Industralisation: The Foundation of Nigeria’s Manufacturing Economy, developed by Lagos-based research, management consulting and venture management practice, Sawubona Advisory Services Limited.

The report explores progress being made in Nigeria’s agricultural sector, with the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), which is one of the strategic levers of the government’s transformation mandate, to glean evidence of forward and backward linkages between primary agriculture and manufacturing.

Obinna Igwebuike, Partner, Research and Consulting at Sawubona, and the brief’s co-author, asserts, “Inclusive wealth creation has been a major challenge for African countries and one of the reasons for this is that a lot of Africans are employed in sub-optimal jobs around primary agriculture. People will create more wealth when they can build skills that can transform basic agriculture products through value-added activities to high quality finished goods and services. Not only does this create inclusive wealth, but it is a more useful export-base for any country.”

Also commenting on the motivation for the report, Brainerd Odiete, Venture Management Partner at Sawubona and co-author of the brief, notes, “We understand that any transformational initiative in agriculture has to generate linkages with manufacturing. In the absence of these linkages, we end up importing what we have exported as primary commodities which have been converted to products. That creates foreign exchange pressures. That’s why this report sought to find out if these linkages exist and we can say that we found sufficient evidence to show that there are indeed these linkages.”

The brief also highlights efforts made by private sector operators in the Nigerian agriculture sector to take advantage of some of these linkages, by presenting the case of Olam Nigeria, Nigeria’s largest non-oil sector exporter. The authors of the brief speak to Ade Adefeko, Head of Corporate and Government Relations, Olam Nigeria, who explains how Olam’s Rice Nucleus Model will create what is expected to be Africa’s largest rice farm.

Download the free report here: http://www.mylanderpages.com/sawubona/november-report