Farouk Gumel

  Farouk Gumel - Despite long standing recognition of the benefits of trade and the importance of improving competitiveness, Africa is performing beneath its potential in global and regional agricultural markets. Recent export growth has been offset by even larger growth in imports, caused by a booming population. More than 60 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa are smallholder farmers, and about 23 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP comes from agriculture. Yet, Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped. This has led to a deterioration of Africa’s trade balance. Intraregional trade, on the other hand, is growing, but remains significantly below the levels seen in other parts of the world. Africa still has strong comparative advantages in many products which include traditional cash crops like coffee, cocoa and tea, as well as new products like legumes, pulses and sesame seeds. Some of these products are becoming the main staples of many African countries, ...

  Farouk Gumel - Agriculture accounts for 70% of the entire workforce in Nigeria and therefore, remains the sector that can massively lift Nigerian’s out of poverty in an inclusive and sustainable way. It is reported that Nigeria has 60 million hectares of arable land which is grossly underutilized. Our yields remain low and post-harvest losses are extremely high. For decades, Nigeria has relied on importation to meet its food security needs. In the last 5 years, the Nigerian authorities have designed and implemented various trade, fiscal and monetary policies to support local food production and reduce post-harvest losses. One of these policies is the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016. The program’s motive was simple. To locally produce fertiliser in an affordable manner. Nigeria has a lot of the key ingredients to make fertiliser locally but in the past, has been importing most of its needs and thus, ignoring the l...

Farouk Gumel - Finally, agriculture is taking its rightful place as the sector that will take Nigerians out of poverty and into an era of inclusive and collective prosperity. Although the sector employs millions of Nigerians and accounts for an estimated 20% of the country’s GDP, many still view supporting agriculture as a charitable act as opposed to a business venture. This is the simple reason why many farmers in this sector are classified as “under employed” due to their mere inability to grow beyond the subsistence level. Nigeria is blessed as we have the potential to excel in all the key sub-sectors of agriculture. We have the land and forests for farming and grazing. We have the water (sea, lakes and rivers) for fishing and aquaculture. We have the capacity and the climate for livestock and poultry production. And of course, we have the manpower to get all this done. Therefore, it is extremely exciting for all of us to see significant investments going into this sector. We are ...

  Farouk Gumel - Oil was discovered in Nigeria in the 1950’s and today, Nigeria is the eleventh-largest oil-producer in the world and Africa’s main oil producer. In 1977, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was founded to participate and regulate the country’s oil sector. Since then, significant progress has been made in terms of increasing production, revenues, and consumption. We must thank NNPC for Nigeria’s dominance in Africa when it comes to oil production. This dominance however came with its downsides. As a nation, Nigeria became over reliant, or one could even say addicted, to oil revenues. From the 1970’s, we convinced ourselves that Nigeria is rich. And maybe we are. But the reality is poverty has always been around growing side by side with our oil production and the apparent wealth. This is because as oil brings revenues to a nation, it does not create jobs in a nation. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the petroleum industry directl...

  Farouk Gumel , Nigeria - In this technology-driven world, we are gradually seeing every aspect of human life being influenced by technology. This has changed the way we see and do things. The agricultural sector is not any different. On a daily basis, we learn of new technologies that support farming, storage, processing, logistics, and sales. This is very exciting for the sector which, at least in Africa, has been very slow to modernize. The question however is how can we transition to ensure we fully harness the benefits of modern agricultural practices while managing its inherent risks? The Technological Advancement in Farming State of the art technology and science-based farming practices undoubtedly bring higher yields, more efficient production, better quality products, and enhanced profitability. In developed and/or sparsely populated nations, farming machinery is preferred as they are more efficient and cheaper. The automation of planting, irrigation, and harvesting has ...

  Nigeria, like many Africa nations, is an agrarian nation. Contrary to the general perception that it is an oil and gas country, the majority of Nigerians in reality earn their living through the agricultural and food value chain. This should not be a surprise. A country with over 200 million people will surely have a large appetite. In this article, we are going to briefly look at how agriculture is one of the biggest reasons why Nigeria is the world’s 27th largest economy, and why investing in this sector will propel Nigeria to greater heights globally. Farouk Gumel, the executive director of TGI, said about Nigerian GDP and How nigeria farming improving day by day. The Truth About Nigerian GDP Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa with the highest population on the continent. It was ranked the 27th largest economy globally and is among the largest producers of oil and gas in the world. The whole world knows Nigeria for its Oil while ignoring its other assets – arable land, w...