Tony Elumelu’s Keynote Address at the Agrinnovation Seminar in Abuja, Nigeria

Delivered by Owen Omogiago, Former COO of Tony Elumelu Foundation and current MD of Transcorp Hotels

Transcorp Hilton, Abuja

December 9, 2019

• Good morning;

• Your Excellency, The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo                                                                              
• Your Excellency, The Ambassador of the State of Israel to Nigeria, Ambassador Shimon Ben-Shoshan                                              
• Distinguished guests here with us today;

• I am here to deliver the keynote address at this Opening session of the Agrinnovation Seminar

• Let me commend the Federal Government of Nigeria for supporting the agricultural sector through initiatives that encourage our local producers and improve access to finance within the sector. The Central Bank of Nigeria has provided funding support to our farmers and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, entrepreneurs in the Agric sector enjoy targeted fiscal and industrial policies to improve their productivity and capacity.                                                                                
• I would also like to commend the Embassy of the State of Israel in Nigeria for organising this important event to discuss the immense benefits technology brings to agriculture

• His Excellency, Ambassador Ben-Shoshan has been an ally of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and we thank him for his unflinching support of African youth and promotion of close ties between our two nation                                                                         
• I am here today as the Chairman of United Bank for Africa, Africa’s global bank with a presence in 20 African Countries as well as operations in three major financial centres of the world: Paris, London and New York

• UBA is a force for development in Nigeria and Africa, through support for SMEs and agriculture 

• UBA’s role in supporting agriculture is acknowledged as UBA has won several awards for ‘The Best Bank in Support of Agriculture’ and ‘Largest Lender to Agriculture’ in recent years. This highlights the role UBA is playing in empowering SMEs and helping to build capacity in the sector

• I also stand here as the Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation

• I started the Tony Elumelu Foundation 10 years ago to catalyse the growth and development process across the continent, aiming to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of our young ones for the transformation of Africa

• Through business management training, sector-specific mentoring and $5000 seed non-refundable seed capital, we have empowered over 7500 entrepreneurs across the 54 African countries with about 50% of these beneficiaries from all the 36 states of Nigeria 

• It is important that we do what we can to break down barriers preventing our youth from developing innovative solutions to the problems that we face in our Agric sector

• In Nigeria-and indeed Africa, one cannot overestimate the importance of agriculture to the economy 

• It is the highest employer of labour in the country, with two-thirds of the labour force employed in agriculture

• On the continent, agriculture accounts for 32% of Africa’s gross GDP and employs over 65% of the workforce

• If we get it right, the agriculture sector represents Africa’s greatest opportunity to drive inclusive, sustainable growth, and the only sector with the potential to lift millions out of poverty and forever change the continent’s path to development

• To achieve this, agriculture will need to move from basic subsistence farming to more productive, efficient and mechanised operations that leverage technology, innovation and international best practice, and the passion, energy, and drive of our young ones

• Young Africans have demonstrated passion for agriculture, over the last 5 years, our programme has revealed that agriculture is the most sought-after sector for young Africans 

• Consistently year in year out, over 30% of all applicants to the programme have been in agriculture

• We must engage and support this interest that our youth have in agriculture by sustained long-term capital investment in this space to increase productivity, profitability and competitiveness of this sector; reduce poverty, hunger and unemployment; and attain food security

• The sector offers the highest potential for sustainable and scalable socio-economic transformation as growth in agriculture results in a significant increase in income for the lowest income segment of the population employed by the sector

• So, we must get it right with agriculture!

• And these young Nigerians and Africans understand the opportunities in agriculture

• Agriculture is rapidly becoming a hotbed for entrepreneurs with new ideas for higher-quality products and advanced processes, integrated supply chains, value-added exports, and a variety of other lucrative business opportunities

• At the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we believe that investments to modernise agriculture will not only transform the lives of the poorest people on the continent but also strengthen Nigeria and Africa’s capacity to absorb the new wave of young people entering the workforce

• I am a businessman first!

• The truth is, we must see agriculture as a business

• The international development community has long acknowledged agriculture as a key point of intervention through aid and subsidies, targeting primarily poor, rural, subsistence farmers, however, we must change mindset to profitability and competitiveness

•  Agriculture, when done well, is a lucrative business that can change the fortunes of communities

• This is what my philosophy of Africapitalism posits: 

• the African private sector and entrepreneurship is the answer, that investment needs to be for the long term – that business needs to create Social as well as economic wealth

• I believe that our young ones, with their innovative ideas and with the right guidance and opportunity can drive poverty reduction and wealth creation in this country

• This is why the Tony Elumelu Foundation has committed USD100 million to train, mentor and empower 10,000 young entrepreneurs over 10 years

• I am currently in Kenya where I presented the keynote at the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Business Summit.

• I highlighted some of the great things our entrepreneurs are achieving leveraging technology in the fields of agriculture and medicine, providing innovation and solutions to issues affecting their local communities and the larger continent

• This year alone, we had a total of 216,025 applications for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.  Nearly 30% of applications were in the agriculture sector 

• And out of the 3,050 that went on to be successful TEF beneficiaries, 30% of them are in involved in agriculture

• This has been the trend since the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme started 5 years ago

• Young people recognise the opportunities available along the agriculture value chain and are taking advantage of it

• Some of our TEF entrepreneurs are actively leveraging the opportunities in agriculture

• For example;

• Joshua Idiong and his company are improving the on the palm oil value chain, reducing waste and creating more income for smallholder farmers (of which 60% are women) by providing an affordable and reliable modern processing alternative with 25% higher efficiency in extraction rate compare to traditional method

• Solomon Onu Akubo is engaged in Rice Production, Processing, Packaging and its distribution to; final consumers, food vendors, restaurant owners, supermarkets, provision stores, groups/associations, wholesalers and retailers. He has expanded his production outside of Taraba to Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, and Abuja

• Outside of Nigeria we have entrepreneurs such as Ziweto Enterprises Limited, a Malawian enterprise founded in 2014 with a mission of raising the value of livestock for better human lives. Since receiving TEF support, Ziweto has opened a network of 6 shops across Malawi (4 of them are franchises), employed 15 full-time workers and generated over 500,000USD in revenue. The enterprise is creating more entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth in Malawi by offering franchise opportunities using a social franchise model                                                    
  • We have TEF entrepreneurs present here today and we are happy that they are actively taking the opportunity to network with policymakers and others involved in the agriculture space

• Let me take this opportunity to commend the Ambassador and his team for ensuring that the Agric entrepreneurship start-up space has been well presented at this seminar

• Our TEF entrepreneurs involved in agriculture and agribusiness that have been supported by the access to seed capital, training and mentoring and we are looking to increase these numbers when the next application cycle opens for the 2020 cohort of TEF entrepreneurs in January

• Because of this interest in agriculture, The Foundation produced a report in 2016 focusing on Unleashing Africa’s Agricultural Entrepreneurs that looks at policies and practices that should be employed to improve the enabling environment for Agriculture

•  Key recommendations put forward was the need for:

• Training: over 20% of entrepreneurs desire some form of training in farm operation management and techniques
  • Access to finance
  • Fix fragmented value chains that exist within the sector for true commercialisation of the industry to take place
  • Government investment in the sector, as SMEs have low capacity with regards processing, the public sector should invest and strengthen processing businesses that source supplies locally.

• Of course, some of these solutions will require the public sector make the necessary investment in expanding the capacity of people who get their livelihood from agriculture
• The enabling environment is necessary for our young ones to take advantage of opportunities, we must look at the public sectors approach to ensuring that access to finance, power and infrastructure do not hinder and douse the energy of young entrepreneurs

• We should all commend UBA for the credit support to agric entrepreneurs and the Central Bank of Nigeria for playing a more development-finance role in ensuring that access to credit is available and affordable. 

• The Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) for example is available to enterprises at a maximum interest rate of 9% to stimulate productivity in the sector 

• Schemes like the CACS and the Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS) enhance national food security; reduce the cost of credit for agricultural production and generate employment, encourage net exportation of agricultural produce and increase foreign exchange earnings

• We must continue to meaningfully and productively engage Africa’s youth bulge lest the demographic dividend deteriorates into a demographic disaster that threatens great destruction -both economic and social

• To conclude, I believe that technology and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand, especially in this fourth industrial revolution

• We will increasingly see the adoption of technology in the solutions our entrepreneurs develop

• We – the private as well as the public sector- must encourage this smarter and efficient way of doing business by leveraging on technology

• Agriculture has vast potential for the development of Nigeria, and we must continue to encourage our young entrepreneurs to develop solutions that can drastically improve food security, increase production -both for domestic consumption and exports- and create both economic and social wealth for their communities

• If we do this, we will all reap the benefits of a more prosperous Nigeria

Thank You