The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on Friday joined Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), the World Bank Group (WBG) and development partners to launch the Nigeria AgriConnect Compact, a national framework aimed at growing Nigeria’s agriculture sector, creating jobs and accelerating food and nutrition security across the country’s priority value chains.
AgriConnect is a World Bank Group initiative designed to help smallholder farmers worldwide move from subsistence to surplus production. It focuses on strengthening agricultural ecosystems through stronger farmer organizations, improved market linkages, enhanced access to finance and digital solutions, and greater private sector participation across food systems.
Aligned with Nigeria’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP), the Compact targets priority crop and livestock value chains with strong potential for productivity growth and job creation. Over the next five years, the Compact aims to improve food and nutrition security for nearly three million people and create more than 2.5 million jobs by developing value chains and strengthening market integration.
“As the only international financial institution exclusively focused on rural transformation, IFAD brings a distinct contribution to AgriConnect by working with smallholder farmers at the first mile of food systems to strengthen farmer collectives, improve post-harvest management and build the commercial linkages needed to connect producers to reliable markets,” said Mohamed El-Ghazaly, IFAD Country Director for Nigeria. “AgriConnect presents an important opportunity for IFAD to build on our long-standing partnership with the Federal Republic of Nigeria and deepen support to smallholder farmers across the country.”
Nigeria’s agriculture sector remains central to the country’s economy, contributing 26 per cent of GDP and employing about 30 per cent of the workforce. Yet productivity remains well below that of regional peers, and about half of the country’s 37 million hectares of arable land is underutilized. With more than 31 million Nigerians facing acute food insecurity – driven by inflation, insecurity and climate shocks – AgriConnect comes at a critical time to boost agricultural production, attract private investment and strengthen Nigeria’s position as a regional food basket.
The Compact will mobilize an estimated US$5 billion over five years from government, development partners and the private sector to finance stronger foundations for smallholder productivity, advance policy reforms, and expand farmers and agribusinesses’ access to affordable credit, insurance and blended finance.
IFAD’s current portfolio in Nigeria includes the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), and the forthcoming Value Chain Programme in Northern Nigeria (VCN), representing a combined IFAD financing commitment of close to US$392 million.
