Food Security Strategy ’ll Cushion Subsidy Removal Impact’

The Managing Director, Silicon Valley Nigeria Economic Developments, Chief Ambassador Aminat Temitope Ajayi, has said the current harsh impacts of the removal of petrol subsidy by President Bola Tinubu, will be cushioned by national food security subsidy.

According to her, it is important to tap into the great agricultural potential of Nigeria to address national food insecurity or hunger, unemployment, inflation, revenue generation for the government and the development of small and medium enterprises.

In an interview with journalists, she lauded the federal government under President Tinubu for declaring a state of national emergency on food security to stem the current food inflation in Nigeria.

She said it is heartwarming that President Tinubu has indicated a great commitment to agriculture going by the recent media briefing by the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake.

Chief Ajayi, the Founder/CEO of the Nigerian American Agricultural Empowerment Program (NAAEP) commended President Tinubu and Alake for the initiative.

She stated that her organisation had already keyed into the food security programme of the government through her partnership with Arewa Farms, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, and other organisations.

She stated that SVNED has trained farmers and entrepreneurs and appealed to the Federal Government to support them so as to bring their wealth of training to boost food production and entrepreneurship in the country.

She said that in her commitment to agricultural development, she introduced the Arewa farmers to the Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, who is also Co-Chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN). She explained that Ooni accepted to be one of the patrons of the programme.

She also said that she took the Arewa farmers to Etsu Nupe, His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr.) Yahaya Abubakar, who also accepted to be the Chairman of the group.

She said: “The solution to food subsidy is national food security subsidy. I thank God that SVNED has partnered with all the Arewa farmers in Nigeria to support food security and food subsidy. We have applied on their behalf for the intervention loan for agriculture and small cottage industries. The application has already been submitted waiting for approval. NIRSAL has already approved SVNED as a registered Entrepreneurship Development Institution (EDI) to facilitate the training and processing

“The mandate is from NISRAL MicrofFinace Bank appointing us as one of its Entrepreneurship Development Institutions in the AGSMEIS Loan Programme for 2023. One of the mandates is to train entrepreneurs in business best business practices and how to run successful businesses. After that, we certify them and forward their list to NISRAL to be able to provide access to finance so that they will be able to start up and run successfully.

“The aim of the training is to be sure that people become enterprising so that they do not just give people money and they do not even know how to use it. Or even those who know how to use it do not know how to manage their businesses and at the end of the day, they will not do successful businesses. So SVNED is there to bridge the gap and provide them with the necessary entrepreneurship skills and business acumen to be able to run small businesses effectively.

“We have submitted some names of the trained entrepreneurs and farmers pending approval.

“We have also registered all the Commodities presidents. SVNED is most grateful to this present administration. They have to supply our farmers with seeds, inputs and fertilizer because they are already in the system. We have been on this since last year. We have been training Nigerians.”