The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has acknowledged the Federal Government’s decision to establish the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, saying that the initiative will mark a significant shift in Nigeria’s agricultural policy landscape.
The position of the LCCI was stated by its President, Gabriel Idahosa, at the Chamber’s third quarterly press conference.
The press conference on the state of the economy was held on Thursday.
Idahosa maintained that it is imperative to view the initiative from the broader implications for the economy and the business community, calling on subnational governments to replicate this in their domains and reduce the persistent clashes over production locations.
He affirmed that creating a dedicated Ministry can provide targeted policies and resources to address the specific needs of the livestock sector, potentially leading to increased productivity and efficiency, adding that a robust livestock and fishery sector can boost the agriculture sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP and curb the record-high food inflation.
He said: “The performance of livestock and fisheries sub-sectors was very weak, as reported in the first quarter of 2024.
“We therefore suggest changing the name of the new ministry to the Federal Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, leaving the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to focus mainly on crop production.
“We look forward to a seamless transition of the new ministry into full operations without delays and deploying a prudent mechanism in the face of rising criticism of the high cost of governance.”
To this end, the Chamber urged the Federal government to “involve all relevant stakeholders, including farming communities, pastoralists, state governments, and private sector entities, in formulating and implementing policies and establishing clear communication channels to ensure transparency and foster stakeholder trust.
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“To develop integrated land use policies that balance the needs of pastoralists and farmers, ensure that both groups have fair access to resources and implement land acquisition and compensation frameworks that respect the rights of Indigenous communities and landowners.
“To encourage the transition from traditional nomadic grazing to modern ranching systems, which can increase productivity, reduce conflicts, and provide incentives for private sector investment in ranching infrastructure, including access to credit, technical assistance, and subsidies.
“To enhance security in rural areas to protect both farmers and pastoralists from violence and theft and implement community policing and conflict resolution mechanisms to address disputes promptly and fairly.
“To carefully plan inclusive policies and sustainable practices essential to ensure this initiative contributes positively to national development and social harmony.
“To encourage Pastoralist clusters at the Local Government levels for ranching effectiveness.
“To educate and train pastoralists on modern-day ranching. Also, creating awareness on the implications of open grazing and the advantages of Ranching.”
However, Idahosa lamented that headline inflation had maintained its upward trend in June 2024, accelerating to 34.19 percent, compared to 33.95 percent in the previous month and 22.79 percent in the corresponding month of 2023, implying 0.24 percent and 11.40 percent points higher respectively.
Following this, he indicated that food prices in June increased by 40.87 percent from 40.66 percent in May on a year-on-year basis, implying a 0.21 percent rise.
LCCI pointed out that the inflationary surge, particularly in food prices, poses a significant challenge to the economic well-being of Nigerians, restating that the inflationary pressures exacerbate the precarious living conditions of millions of Nigerians and further amplify social and economic vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, Idahosa lauded the recent step the Federal Government took in approving import duty waivers for food imported for 150 days on selected food items, urging the government to focus more on boosting the supply side and drop the idea of a Recommended Retail Price for food items.
He established: “In a free market economy, the forces of demand and supply will always determine prices. While we support promoting and empowering local production, emergency interventions like this are not out of place since they are meant to fill a gap that local production capacity cannot achieve in the short term.
“More direct and targeted interventions should be focused on agricultural mechanization, agricultural research, the adoption of lower import duty exchange rates used to import agricultural input, and the establishment of more functional agro-industrial hubs across the country.”
In line with this, LCCI recommended strategies to address the rising inflationary trend and foster economic stability.
Idahosa advised: “The federal government needs to invest more in building the required infrastructure to drive the deployment of Compressed Natural Gas CNG-powered transportation. Since this is perceived to be cheaper than petrol, we see it as having the capacity of driving down transport costs. We need the basic infrastructure, which is charging facilities.
“Prioritise smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups, including women and youth, for targeted assistance.
“Promote the integration of fertiliser distribution with other agricultural value chain interventions, such as improved seeds, irrigation, and post-harvest management.
“Support the development of local fertilizer production capacity to reduce import dependency and enhance long-term sustainability.
“Utilise information and communication technologies (ICTs) to disseminate agricultural advisory services, market information, and weather forecasts to farmers.
“Empower farmer cooperatives and associations to play a central role in distributing and managing subsidised inputs and access to finance.
“Urgently improve transportation infrastructure, including road networks, to reduce the cost of transportation and mitigate inflationary pressures across various sectors of the economy.
“Efforts should be intensified to strengthen agricultural value chains, including establishing adequate storage facilities and promoting agro-processing industries to reduce post-harvest losses and enhance food security.
On assessment outlook, the LCCI president disclosed that the growth in the first quarter was primarily driven by the non-oil sector, which recorded a growth of 2.80 percent and contributed 93.62 percent to the GDP.
Idahosa affirmed that the fastest-growing sectors in the economy include solid minerals, finance and insurance, oil and gas, ICT, arts, entertainment and recreation, and transportation and storage, stressing that it is important to note that most sectors that recorded significant growth are small, except ICT.
LCCI boss revealed: “The Q1 2024 GDP report showed that growth in agriculture, Nigeria’s largest single economic sector and employer, was very weak at 0.18 percent compared to 2.10 percent in the previous quarter.
“This reflects a marginal growth of 1.71 percent in crop production and contributed over 91 percent of the total output in the sector.
“The livestock and fisheries sub-sectors recorded weak performance.
“We expect to see some improvement in these sub-sectors with the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Development by the Federal Government.
“The manufacturing sector also continued to struggle, recording a weak growth of 1.49 percent in the first quarter compared to 1.61 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2023.
“The weak performance is obviously due to weak consumer demand due to weakened purchasing power and high cost of production due to FOREX illiquidity, high interest rate, etc.”
Speaking on policy responses, Idahosa urged the government to tackle the problem of insecurity, which has continued to threaten productive activities in the real economy sector, appreciating the government’s efforts in fighting all manner of crimes and insurgencies.
He indicated that the Chamber believed more could be done until “we have a safe environment where farmers can produce and move their goods from farms to markets in certain areas of the country.
“On managing the persistently high inflation, we recommend that monetary and fiscal authorities focus on the factors driving the inflation rates by tackling supply-side deficiencies instead of focusing too much on demand-side management.
“We urge the CBN to be consistent with the FOREX market reforms until we see the desired impact on the rising inflation rate and burdening high interest rates.
“We recommend the CBN explore alternative policy measures that promote credit access, stimulate investment, and support entrepreneurship.
“This could include targeted interventions such as concessional lending facilities, loan guarantees, and interest rate subsidies tailored to the needs of SMEs and key sectors of the economy like agriculture, manufacturing, and power technology.”
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