The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono has has raised concern over the low purchasing power of Nigerians, saying unemployment is Nigeria’s biggest challenge not food insecurity as Nigeria’s food production has improved and gained international recognition.
Nanono said the country may produce enough food to eat but people still sleep with hunger because they do not have enough money to buy food.
The Minister said this at the 2021 edition of the Feed Nigeria Summit in Abuja on Monday saying poverty will not end in the country without a close synergy between the agricultural sector and other industrial sectors.
According to him, if we do not focus on how to remove this fundamental issue of unemployed youths and move them to be gainfully employed we are doing nothing.
“Unless we create that relationship and make it strong, the poverty we are talking about will not go away”.
Nanono, while acknowledging efforts by some agricultural industrialists, expressed optimism that with the ongoing massive investment in sugar, in the next two years Nigeria will be self-sufficient in sugar production and will be able to meet up with the annual demand of 1.5million tones.