Business opportunities government can seize for Nigeria’s economic development

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is poised to develop the country economically with his economic policies which seem painful in the short run but beneficial in the long run. There are business opportunities that the Federal Government of Nigeria can latch onto for economic growth and development. Governments are in vantage position to do business because of their structure which means that they have access to foreign cheap funds than private sector participants. The country has so many needs that cannot yet be met and these provide opportunities for business development, especially in the area of housing, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation. The current estimate of the housing deficit of Nigeria, a country with over 220 million people, is 22 million housing units. This is without consideration for those living in substandard houses without water and paved or tarred roads.

Food prices are soaring every day! According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), prices of beans, tomatoes, Irish potatoes, garri, yam and other food items witnessed significant price increases in June 2024. The NBS said this in its “Selected Food Prices Watch” report for June 2024 released in Abuja. The report said that the average price of 1kg of brown beans increased by 252.13 percent from N651.12 recorded in June 2023 to N2,292.76 in June 2024. “On a month-on-month basis, 1kg of brown beans increased by 14.11 percent in June from the N2,009.23 recorded in May 2024.” It also said that the average price of 1kg of tomatoes increased by 320.67 percent on a year-on-year basis from N547.28 recorded in June 2023 to N2,302.26 in June 2024. “On a month-on-month basis, 1 kg of tomatoes increased by 55.97 percent from the N1,479.69 recorded in May 2024.”

Adams Smith (1723 – 1790), a Scottish Economist, stated that there are three basic needs of man which are: food, shelter and clothing. He stated that “they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole public (the working class) should have to be fed, housed and lodged well”. The three essentials of food, houses, and clothes are good issues to develop business opportunities around as their impacts will be more conspicuously felt than any other. A hungry man, a homeless man and clothing-less man is not a man. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) supports governments and partners to design the right policies and programmes to end hunger, promote food security and promote sustainable agriculture for millions of people around the world. Government can create business opportunities around agriculture by encouraging citizens to go into agribusiness! Agriculture business is a sustainable business and can never go into extinction because of the importance of food in life.

What the late chief Obafemi Awolowo did to position the South West of Nigeria as a ‘numero uno’ and ‘primus inter pares’ region in Nigeria was to establish farm settlements in the rural areas of Western Region where cash crops were the focus for export. While citizens were building with mud, the late Obafemi Awolowo built the houses in his farm settlements with blocks which were stronger, elitist and costlier than building with mud. People were ready to take up houses in the settlements and contribute to the development of the region. The South West, thereby, became the infrastructural hub of Nigeria with many firsts with proceeds from agriculture produce. Awolowo demonstrated that a strategy for sustainable development can be created around agriculture in Nigeria. It led to competition between the west, north which grew groundnut, cotton and beans’ and east/south-south which grew palm kernel, yam and vegetables.

It is hereby proposed that governments should establish farm estates with two bedroom flats and minimum of four acres of land (about 16,180 square metres) each as farmsteads. The farmsteads will be located beside each other while the houses will be located near each other with infrastructure like tarred road, internet facilities, pipe borne water from central water system, clinic, schools for children and playing ground.  Government will be using one stone to kill two birds if they can invest in farm estates to be established in all the states of the federation. The unemployed youths will be engaged and housing units will increase in the farm settlements. Nigeria national assets will also increase as the farm estate will remain a public asset on lease. The total national assets of the United States of America include physical assets of at least $269 trillion (1576% of GDP) and debts of $145.8 trillion (852% of GDP) to produce a net worth of at least $123.8 trillion (723% of GDP).

Lagos, Rivers, Edo, Bayelsa, Borno, Kebbi, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Ogun, Akwa Ibom, Kogi and Cross River States will have some mega fish farm estates because of their water bodies. Those farm estates to be established who specialise in cotton farming, mostly in the north, and central part of the country, will supply our textile industries with raw materials. This will rejuvenate our moribund textile industry and reposition Nigeria as a textile manufacturer of note in Africa. With the fact that Nigerians are generally underfed and fish import totalling $65 billion, this project alone has the potential of earning a trillion naira for the nation at the end of the first year of execution.

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