Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) has advocated the establishment of price stabilisation mechanisms to maximise market price fluctuations for producers and processors of farm produce in the country.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, with the theme, “Strengthening Agribusiness Investments Partnership Platforms in Nigeria,” the President of NABG, Sani Dangote, said the group is working on the establishment of price stabilisation mechanisms of specific produce such as maize, rice, millet and sorghum to ensure supply security of raw materials to meet the demands of food processors in partnership with Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

He added that NABG is also promoting market guarantees for agricultural raw materials, eliminating post-harvest losses and market price fluctuations through its support for the CBN-NIRSAL Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) of the Federal Government.

According to him, NABG is also working with state governments in Kaduna, Lagos, Kano, Gombe, Enugu, Oyo, Edo, Kastina and Imo states to ensure security of supply of raw materials to meet the demands of the food processors. He said the group is engaging Nigerian youths in the production, processing, marketing and distribution of packaged convenient and nutritious foods through job creation and promotion of entrepreneurship ventures.

As part of its objectives for 2018, he said, “with our partnership, we are developing ‘NABG Connect Online’ application, which was designed to enable members register themselves with their smartphones and provide all required information, including GPS coordinates. The application will provide a user-friendly guide to find the nearest member, based on querries for goods and services, and to be routed to the location. This application will be launched in the first quarter of 2018.”

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He added: “We believe in the current efforts being made by both the state and federal tiers of government to focus on creating the enabling environment to diversify the economy away from oil and gas towards food and agriculture-based economy. For example, we believe the CBN ABP is in the right direction towards reducing the constraints of affordable financing and guarantee off-take markets for locally grown and locally produced staple foods.

Speaking on the NABG 2107 key achievements’ talking points, he said NABG has established successful strategic partnerships with both domestic and international agribusiness stakeholders, especially in Europe and Kenya.

He noted that in 2017, the group continued its focus on strengthening its strategic partnership platforms in the implementation of transformative food and agricultural policies and regulations in Nigeria.

He stated that, “we continued to engage the public and private sector, particularly producers, processors, and equipment manufacturers and suppliers in the transfer of agriculture, food and processing engineering technologies to address the issues and challenges of post-harvest handling, aggregation and value added processing of agricultural produce in Nigeria.”