Agric 50 Trillion Naira! Inviting Nigerians; Beyond Government Funds

[Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth]

Agric.50 Trillion Naira!.: Inviting Nigerians: beyond Government Funds

By Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth,London,England

There is massive wealth outside  government in Nigeria and this could be discerned from a whole range of statistical information about transactions taking place in nigeria and imported goods and services .the vanguard  of september 22 2033  featured the the icpc boss ,  Professor Bolaji   Owasanoye who said 24 trillion naira of electronic transactions were carried out from january to june, it is always about 50 trillion naira yearly

This is a problem to be solved not a problem to quarrel with. Nigerians are sending money out of the country for instance to invest in technology stocks like GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, APPLE.AMAZON,And NETFLIX you can guess that because of the perceived returns on investment billions of dollars are leaving the country // This same  country which so many of the investors are complaining about whilst still residing in nigeria.

So it needs some kind of appeals, education, counseling, persuasion,convincing and marketing

Our philosophers can help,so also our historians can educate them as to how these advanced societies emerge. Our song writers , poets, novelists, theater practitioners and even  dancers and choreographers could be co opted towards galvanizing nigerians in the desired direction

For those who are already convinced on the need to invest in nigeria i would like to suggest you  include in your database the names as follows:

1 Gilbert Ekugbe  and Festus Akanbi writing on agriculture in Thisday newspaper

2 Daniel Essiet, agric NationNewspaper

3 Femi Igbirogba  and Gbenga Akinfenwa, The Guardian  Newspaper

4Aisha  Babangida of Women Enterprise Alliance WENA

5Nndidi Okonkwo  Nwuneli,Sahel  Consulting

6 Ene Obi,Country Manager,ActionAid

7 manzo  Maigari, DG   Nigerian Agric Business group

8 Arc  Kabir Ibrahim,President , All farmers association of Nigeria

As a step further towards productivity  we need to help the  farmers or encourage them

To be all numerate  and literate the ultimate would be digital skills..to enable as many of them as possible to be self entrepreneurs.

Secondly, we need a robust and befitting website for the all farmers association that provides us with vital information  at federal, state and local levels, like infographics, statistics,weather reports,profiles of executives, board of  trustees, and a permanent  place  and staff of researchers  to serve as a think tank

In such a website we could get information on critical sectors of the agric value chain,business leaders, community leaders, youths, students, academics, policy makersm Financial institutions, media contacts. etc