The European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS has inaugurated the EU-Nigeria Agribusiness Platform designed to foster private investments in the country’s agribusiness sector. The outcome of the move also will be a decrease in food insecurity, poverty, and sustainable economic development attainable in Nigeria.
The EU-Nigeria Agribusiness Platform will debate and add value to promoting better exploration and exploitation of the agribusiness opportunities of Nigeria with the EU through the setup and maintenance of a network of active agribusinesses that stretches across the territory of both Nigeria and the European Union.
The agribusiness platform can be regarded as a form of digital agriculture business platform that provides a digital marketplace for marketing, trading, or providing investment space for business transactions among Nigerian and European SMEs in the agri-food system and agro-industry.
The main objective of the EU-Nigeria Agribusiness Platform will address linkages and interactions among agribusiness stakeholders in Nigeria and in the EU, particularly among the SMEs, with an aim of promoting trade and investment among the two sides.
According to the Deputy Director General, Directorate of International Partnerships, INTPA, European Commission, Myriam Ferran, the agribusiness platform was a product of commitments from the November 2020 EU-Nigeria Ministerial Dialogue.
To this end, a framework EU-Nigeria Agri Business Platform was called into place in consultation with the government of Nigeria—an institutionalized structured dialogue between farming and agri-food communities of Nigerian and EU origin and with agricultural and agro-industrial sectors, respectively. This is meant to support trade, attract responsible investment, and promote business linkages, especially for SMEs.
One such foundation to economic development and sustainable growth in Nigeria is agriculture. The industry makes up approximately a quarter of the country’s GDP.
Because of its importance, successive governments in Nigeria have tried to diversify the economy from crude oil to an agricultural sector that has been revitalized with the application of various agricultural policies and programs to promote and propel it in its productivity and agri-food commodity base.
EU-Nigeria trade volume lingered at €24.6bn in 2023, down by 18.7 percent year-over-year. The relationship with the European Union continues to be one of Nigeria’s most important with any regional organization. Nigeria is the European Union’s biggest trading partner in Africa and its largest energy supplier, first investor, foremost humanitarian and development donor, and the largest political interlocutor. On EU-Nigeria trade relations, things are in favor of Nigeria. Of the imports from Nigeria, unrefined petroleum products generously contributed to them.
Then there is a need to build up non-oil trade between Nigeria and the European Union.
The EU-Nigeria Agribusiness Platform will be managed by Agribusiness Register Limited, a private sector entity highly conversant with the agribusiness ecosystem.
The idea of handing over the platform to a private sector-led entity working in partnership with public and private sector stakeholders came out during a stakeholder consultative meeting in April 2023.
The Agribusiness Register Limited, owners and managers of the Nigeria Agribusiness Register, will interface and engage with a selection of agribusiness firms, farmer organizations, aggregators, and other relevant stakeholders.
It will also foster partnership and collaboration with EU implementing partners relevant to the space of agriculture, digital, and entrepreneurship on one hand, and counterpart agencies of the government of Nigeria on the other.
In particular, it would collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, and the Ministry of Communication and the Digital Economy.
The European Union and the European Business Chamber in Nigeria, this morning, signed a grant agreement for the further development of the chamber to the tune of €300,000. This will be quite a substantial contribution in financial terms, underlining EU’s commitment to deeper economic and commercial cooperation with Nigeria.
The Deputy Director General, Directorate of International Partnerships, INTPA, European Commission, Ms. Myriam Ferran, and Eurocham’s Vice President, Mr Frederik Klinke, signed the grant agreement on behalf of the two parties at an event during the 9th EU-Nigeria Business Forum in Abuja on July 2, 2024.
This grant aims to enhance the capacity of Eurocham to serve its members in a better way, promote European business interests within Nigeria, as well as give its input on mutual global economic growth and development.
Ms. Myriam Ferran further emphasized how crucial the partnership was and confirmed also that the EU remained interested in supporting initiatives that would spur economic growth as well as deepen the links between Nigeria and the EU, as reflected in the Global Gateway Strategy.
“This grant to Eurocham Nigeria is a statement of confidence by European Union on its commitment to supporting an active business environment and meaningful economic exchanges in Nigeria as a whole,” she said.
Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO and Nigeria’s First City Monument Bank signed an agreement for $25m NASIRA guarantee on the sideline.
This guarantee will help FCMB ramp up its funding to non-collateralized agricultural, youth, and women-owned SMEs—the clientele segment that goes by the way of being adjudged as too risky for the books of banks.
Probably one of the most innovative programmes FMO runs – also funded by the European Commission – NASIRA enables local banks to provide funding to small entrepreneurs without requiring collateral. Very often this guarantee from FMO – as such replacing the collateral – is not called upon thus clearly illustrating that these entrepreneurs, women and youth, are not per se riskier than others.
Job creation is an extremely vital issue for Nigeria because the country has the largest population in Africa: 220 million people. The economy is currently quite troubled; it is racked by severe difficulties, including very high unemployment and in the last single year, the national currency devalued by almost 70%. The availability of small loans to generally high-risk groups for starting or expanding their businesses will give them a chance to earn for themselves and their families.
Alongside the USD 25 million NASIRA guarantee, FMO will make available to FCMB a USD 60 million syndicated loan consisting of (i) a USD 20 million loan by FMO, (ii) a USD 30 million loan via the European Financing Platform arranged by BIO, DEG, EIB, FINNFUND, Proparco, and SWEDFUND, and (iii) a USD 10 million loan by FMO Investment Management. Part of these resources will be destined for the development of the existing FCMB loan products for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs).
Speaking while addressing newsmen at the sideline of the forum during the signing ceremony, Ms. Myriam Ferran, European Commission Deputy Director-General, Directorate of International Partnerships, INT PA, said: “We are very happy to see that EU investment instruments, like the EFSD+ guarantees under the European Fund for Sustainable Development, have come to work in Nigeria with a catalytic role to leverage private sector investments for the benefit of the real sector, economic diversification, and employment creation, especially for youth and women.