Digital technology set to revolutionise agriculture in Africa, says Nigeria’s vice president Osinbajo

Kenneth Afor with agency report

The adoption of digital technology will see Africa witness a revolution in the agricultural sector, Yemi Osinbajo, the vice president of Nigeria has said at the on-going African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2019 in Accra, Ghana.

Osinbajo charged African leaders and multi-national companies in the agricultural sector that time has come for both parties to collaborate in investing in the sector, engage in knowledge sharing and join forces in promoting growth and development in the sector.

He was part of the panelists that included Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana, Edouard Ngirente, prime minister of Rwanda and Josefa Sacko, commissioner for agriculture, African Union (AU).

“Some of the fintech companies are also in that space helping to make payments; helping to do transactions and a lot of them are doing well just by building the sector,” Osinbajo said, adding that the way it was going, digital technology would completely revolutionise agriculture because, practically everywhere that digital technology has touched; is completely revolutionised

Africa has come of age to join the rest of the world in taking bold steps towards making agriculture another goldmine for her people through the use of advanced technological approaches in carrying out agricultural practices.

Osinbajo observed that some companies in the continent are taking the lead in using advanced technology in offering services to potential customers both far and near and locating investors.

He said: “What we found is that there is far more collaboration than before and there is far more transparency; you can see practically everything and anyone who is connected one way or the other and people learn faster because of a lot of collaboration.

“People can get online; find out what this company is doing; some companies are linking investors to farmers and it is so easy to find out what they are doing by simply going to their website.”

Similarly, Nigeria’s agricultural landscape has recently witnessed a deluge of agric based tech firms who are catching up using advanced technology to bridge the gap between farmers and the markets, they are also helping farmers get adequate and direct funding from agric micro investors for their farming activities and improving farmers’ livelihood.