How Agriculture Will Boost Foreign Exchange – NGX Reveals

By Tolulope Oke

According to the Nigerian Exchange Group’s (NGX) Managing Director (GMD), Oscar Onyema, the agriculture sector has the capacity to boost foreign exchange in the country.

He explains that Nigeria’s 34 million hectares of fertile land correlate to a wide range of prospects for achieving food security.

He claims it is surprising that agriculture contributes roughly 24% of Nigeria’s GDP and that the country is a global leader in the production of a number of agricultural products, including sorghum, cocoa beans, pineapples, and palm oil.

Onyema cited the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Q2 2022 GDP report noting that crop production is the primary driver of the agriculture sector because it accounted for 91.99 percent of the sector’s overall nominal growth in that quarter.

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He added that it has become crucial to promote both new and existing instruments for the optimization of this sector. He noted that the Nigerian capital market, which supports long-term capital formation, could be a good engine for fostering growth and development in the agriculture sector.

Onyema made this known at the 26th Annual Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers’ conference held in Benin City, the Edo State Capital.

In his words “In terms of generating the much-needed foreign exchange for the Nigerian economy, the agriculture sector continues to show strong potential. In 2021, Europe was Nigeria’s main trade partner in terms of agricultural product exports. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the export value of agricultural products to Asia amounted to approximately N68.2 billion – roughly $164.3 million.