The repeated rejection of Nigerian agricultural exports has dealt a heavy blow to the local economy, undermined farmers’ confidence, and slowed the Federal Government’s efforts to achieve food security.
This worrisome trend persists not because of poor quality, but largely due to alleged non-compliance with global packaging and processing standards.
In a bid to reverse the tide, a series of initiatives backed by the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) flagship Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) project is changing the narrative. With pilot rollouts in Cross River and Kaduna States, the programme is being scaled to all 36 states,
The federal government is also intensifying efforts to harness the agricultural value chain to boost foreign exchange earnings. This aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s broader economic diversification agenda.
To realise this goal, the administration is working closely with international development partners like the AfDB to implement sustainable solutions.
Nigeria, endowed with year-round arable land, grows a variety of food crops with global market potential comparable to crude oil.
Recognising this, the previous administration identified 22 non-oil products for export under the National Export Promotion programme.
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), in collaboration with the private sector, has projected over $150 billion in potential annual export value through its zero-oil plan. Key crops include palm oil, cocoa, cashew, soybeans, rubber, rice, ginger, cotton, shea butter, and others.
Despite these efforts, the country has seen a decline in agricultural exports due to international rejections citing poor packaging, inadequate documentation, and non-adherence to export standards.
Among the frequently rejected products are yam, hibiscus (used in zobo), mushrooms, bitter leaf, fluted pumpkin leaf, waterleaf, garden eggs, shelled groundnut, and crayfish.
Through renewed commitment and structural reforms spearheaded by the SAPZ initiative, Nigeria aims to turn the tide and reclaim its place in the global agro-export market.
While the Shippers Association of Lagos (SAL) estimated that the seized or prohibited items make up 82 per cent of the country’s exportable agro-allied produce, the World Bank projects that Nigeria and other developing countries are expected to lose between $12 billion and $15 billion by 2025 to rejected exports.
Last year, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Ngozi Nkonjo-Iweala, said Nigeria lost its leading position in the agricultural export markets because its agricultural commodities do not meet the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of the foreign markets.
Nkonjo-Iweala’s counterpart in the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, knows the problem and its solution – a well-funded Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) that is built closer to rural farmers.
Following tested models in other African countries, the AfDB, in partnership with development partners, has begun “the new era of agricultural transformation” across the 36 states, beginning with the recent rollout of the SAPZs Kaduna and Cross River States.
The SAPZ Nigeria Programme, a flagship initiative of the African Development Bank Group’s Feed Africa strategy, has a three-pronged approach of infrastructure development for agro-industrial zones, institutional capacity building and business environment enhancement, and agricultural productivity support, skills development, and private investment facilitation across value chains.
A public-private partnership model for sustainability
The federal government, in a strategic partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and key international partners—the Islamic Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Africa Grow Together Fund—will inaugurate Phase 1 implementation of the SAPZ programme covering eight states of Kaduna, Kano, Kastina, Ogun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross Rivers and Imo States; and the FCT.
The total financing for the first phase of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones in Nigeria is $510 million. For this first phase, the African Development Bank is providing $200 million, including $50 million from the Africa Growing Together Fund, with co-financing of $100 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, $150 million from the Islamic Development Bank and $60 million from the Green Climate Funds.
Recall that the bank raised an unprecedented $2.2 billion commitment at the recent Africa investment forum in Rabat, Morocco, for the Nigeria Phase 2 SAPZ. Lessons learnt from this phase will lead to a faster implementation of this next phase.
Rural prosperity
With Nigeria losing billions annually to food insecurity, the SAPZ initiative represents both a developmental priority and an economic imperative.
The programme aims to transform Nigeria into a global agribusiness leader by strategically leveraging co-financing and private-sector expertise.
According to Adesina, “The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone is about developing new economic zones across Africa close to where farmers are. These zones have enabling infrastructure—power, water, roads, irrigation—and today, we’re investing over $3 billion in more than 11 countries, including Nigeria.”
He emphasised that transformation without an agricultural revolution is incomplete because “agriculture touches people’s lives at the grassroots level”.
Adesina commended Kaduna and Cross Rivers state governors for their unparalleled commitments to agriculture, citing that Governor Uba Sani had increased the State budget allocated to agriculture to 10 per cent – about N74 billion committed to agriculture in 2025.
He added that Cross River State also has a significant role in Nigeria’s agricultural transformation because of the vast production of cocoa, cassava, rice and banana in the state, saying Obudu Cattle Ranch alone can turn the state into a huge livestock producer.
With joy, the AfDB president said that the development of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones is finally a reality in Nigeria under the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Because this was an idea that I had when I was the Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria. At the time, it was called Staple Crops Processing Zones. I remember the rice revolution across northern Nigeria at the time and the dramatic improvement in the production of food, more generally, across all the agricultural value chains.
“The challenge was, we were producing more than we could process. Food losses were high due to lack of appropriate storage and logistics infrastructure. And several agribusinesses were focused more on imports of processed foods, when in fact they should be processing the food and agricultural commodities of Nigeria,” he said.
Adesina added that changing that trend required understanding the challenges across the agricultural value chains, from the farm to the table. At the heart of that is the lack of appropriate infrastructure to support food and agribusinesses to take advantage of the rapidly rising staple food crop production, process and add value, and deliver cheaper, processed, well-packaged food for consumers within Nigeria and for export markets.
“Many of the food and agribusinesses were in the urban areas far from the zones of farm production, simply importing raw materials, processing and sending processed imported commodities within the country. The result was the displacement of the emergence of a dynamic food and agribusiness food processing and manufacturing industry that relies on the agricultural commodities produced in Nigeria.
“This lack of stable industry-driven market offtake for farmers depresses farm prices and negatively affects incentives for farmers to use new technologies, including improved seeds, fertilisers, irrigation and mechanisation.
“While I worked so hard to develop the Staple Crop Processing Zones, with the idea of having them all over the country at the time, institutional inertia from the Ministry of Trade and Investment made their roll-out impossible at the time, with the view that the Ministry of Agriculture should simply focus on ‘farm production’ while the Ministry of Trade and Investment focuses on ‘agribusiness’.”
Notwithstanding the disappointment of not getting the Staple Crop Processing Zones initiative off the ground in Nigeria some 10 years ago, his becoming the president of AfDB offered a bigger opportunity with the Feed Africa Strategy that has committed over $934 million for the development of SAPZs and mobilised co-financing of over $938 million from partners, including the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
Currently, the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones are under implementation in 27 sites across 11 countries, including Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Togo, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Mali, and now, Nigeria.
To ensure the success of the programme, The AfDB president called for enablers that include political will, consistent policies that are devoid of flipflops that come with a change in administration, cross-ministerial cooperation and collaboration, legislative backing for the SAPZs through an Act of the National Assembly, while the Bank of Industry, recapitalised Bank of Agriculture and commercial banks, ensure affordable financing for agricultural value chains.
A welcome development
Speaking on Thursday when he performed the groundbreaking ceremony of SAPZ in Calabar, the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, described the project as “a game changer” that aligns with the President Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, aimed at diversifying the nation’s economy, addressing food security, tackling rural unemployment, as well as empowering farmers and the youth population.
“There is no intervention more practical in our dream of a nation where the potential of agriculture is maximised than what’s brought us together today. This isn’t just a project—it’s a bold vision to transform Nigeria’s agricultural value chain,” Shettima said.
The VP added that the Kaduna and Calabar SAPZ will serve as a hub for agro-processing and storage, providing farmers and agripreneurs with critical infrastructure to scale their operations and tap into local and international markets.
“This is where farmers will meet with private investors, where ideas will turn into enterprise, and where our youth will find meaningful opportunities,” he said, disclosing that the Tinubu administration has classified SAPZ as a priority program in Nigeria’s quest for food security, with plans to institutionalise it as a government agency that will facilitate agricultural industrialisation across all 36 states.
Earlier, Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu, said the programme marked a watershed in the ongoing bid by his administration to establish the renewable resource base of the state through the full utilisation of agriculture and its multiple value chain.
Otu pointed out that in Cross River State, establishing a cluster of smallholder farmers in cash crops such as rice, cassava, millet, and cocoa across the state is the right step towards the agro-industrial revolution.
He said the paradigm shift from a non-renewable to a renewable resource base also holds the key to the prosperity of many nations, hence the imperative to join the league of sub-nationals in Nigeria that have adopted agriculture as the mainstay of their economy.
Also, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said the programme would transform Nigeria’s agricultural production and agro-investment landscape under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu.
The Association of Food and Agro Processors of Nigeria (AFAP) said the feat marked the beginning of a journey filled with promise, progress, and purpose in the food and agro-industries in Nigeria.
“This project symbolises vision, collaboration, and commitment to building Nigeria’s sustainable and agricultural-based economy. It is also a testament to what is achievable when minds come together with a shared dream and vision,” the associate stated.
Indeed, the SAPZ initiative, which thrives on partnership based on counterpart funding model, promises to systematically turn around the slumbering agriculture sector.
Though Adesina’s two-term tenure at the AfDB ends soon, Nigerians and development partners look forward to SAPZ facilities that will outlast the current federal and state administrations.
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