The Federal Government has recently unveiled plans to establish a 500-million-dollar Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Fund to mobilise investment and boost agricultural transformation across the Niger Delta region.
The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima while delivering his speech at the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit, jointly convened by the Office of the Vice President and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja acknowledged the Nigeria’s development before the advent of oil and gas discovery was driven by an agrarian economy, and the foundation of Nigeria was laid upon it, which “before the barrel, it was the soil that paid our bills.”
Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Summit 2026 with the theme ‘Unlocking Investment for Sustainable Agricultural Transformation in the Niger Delta’ had in attendance all nine governors of the Niger Delta region, Federal Ministries, traditional rulers, development partners, diplomatic community, and other stakeholders in attendance.
He said: “This is why we have gathered here today, with the governors of all nine states, upon three pillars: to launch a dedicated investment fund, to coordinate the commitments already pledged to this region, and to inaugurate the institution that will steer them, summoning the capital of the world to this corridor.
“The Niger Delta Agricultural Investment Fund of 500 million dollars, which we launch today, is a commercial, returns-driven vehicle spanning the value chain, from aquaculture and palm oil to cassava, cocoa, rice, horticulture, marine resources, and livestock.
“Around it, we coordinate the commitments already pledged by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and our private and commercial financiers.
“Above both stands the Niger Delta Agricultural Development and Investment Council, which I am honoured to chair, with the NDDC as its Secretariat. Beneath it lies a demand-side strategy preparing bankable projects across all nine mandate states.”
He also said the President has placed food security among the earliest priorities of his administration, “because nations that lose control of their food eventually surrender control of their future. His July 2023 declaration of a state of emergency shifted our national approach from the boardroom to the ground, across production, market stabilisation, and food access.”
Meanwhile, the Vice President urged investors, development partners and governors to key into the Fund and treat this Summit as the start of an obligation rather than the end of a ceremony.
