The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has revealed that Nigeria spends over $10 billion annually on agricultural imports while earning less than $400 million from agro exports.
Kyari made the disclosure on Tuesday at the FirstBank of Nigeria’s 2025 Agric and Export Expo in Lagos. Represented by his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Alkali, the minister listed imported food items to include wheat, rice, sugar, fish, and tomato paste.
He expressed concern over the widening gap between imports and exports, stressing the urgent need to finance local agricultural production and enhance export capacity.
“Agriculture already contributes 35 percent of our Gross Domestic Product and employs 35 percent of our workforce,” Kyari said. “We sit on 85 million hectares of arable land and a youth population with over 70 percent under the age of 30, yet Nigeria accounts for less than 0.5 percent of global exports.”
He urged stakeholders to channel investments into agribusiness and value addition, in order to reduce dependence on imports and create a stronger export-driven agricultural sector.
