ADVERTISEMENT
The Sun Nigeria
  • Home
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
No Result
View All Result
The Sun Nigeria
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

Agriculture key to revamping Nigeria’s economy –Kwatu, MD, Niger Resources

18th January 2021
in Business
0
Agriculture key to revamping Nigeria’s economy –Kwatu, MD, Niger Resources
0
SHARES
116
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By Henry Akubuiro 

 

Alhaji Bala Abdullahi Kwatu is the Managing Director of Niger Resources Ltd, an integrated firm incorporated in 1981, operating in Minna, with focus on agricultural produce. He is also on the board of many Nigerian companies, including Urban Shelter. Credited for delivering over $1 billion in business investment, Bala Kwatu, in this interview with Daily Sun in his office in Abuja, x-rays agriculture and the ace it holds in revamping Nigeria’s dwindling economy.

Excerpts

The company

Niger Resources is privately owned, not a government undertaking. The mistake some people make is that when they see “Niger” attached to “Resources”, they think it’s a government establishment. It was incorporated in 1981. We are currently producing in excess of 400 hectares of rice. 200 hectares of maize and 100,000 yam tubers have been cultivated this year. We are also in the production of cowpeas spread over 100 hectares of land. All these hectares are located in Minna, Niger State.

Our objective is  to move Niger Resources to the global arena to face global competition through establishing our core competence. And when I say “core competence”, it means what we can do best, what we can add, and what we are doing best to give meaning to the world of agriculture. It is our intention to focus on yam production on a larger scale. In the next five years, we intend to cultivate up to one million tubers of yam. This will give us comparative advantage over others. 

Everybody in Nigeria seems to be producing rice. Yam is a staple crop also. It is suitable for different types of food. You can process yam to create amala and eat it as fried, boil it or roast it. It can also be used as starch or poundo yam. So this is where we think we can push our core competence. 

For rice production, we are looking at bringing about 4,000 hectares of land under cultivation in the next five years. Currently, we are working at establishing a rice processing mill, and plans are at advance level. 

Going into agriculture 

I never dreamt of taking farming as a profession while growing up. Going to my background, I had a BA in History, a certificate in Mass Communication, a postgraduate diploma in Management and a Masters in Business Administration. How could you ever imagine somebody with this background going into agriculture? Today, agriculture is my number one profession, when, as a secondary school student, I tried by all means to avoid agriculture because it was tedious. Tilling with bare hands was difficult. So many people would like to run away from that labour. 

Despite all I did to run away from agriculture to other lucrative ventures, though my grandfather and my uncle, who adopted me, told me never to abandon agriculture, I found myself in that profession. 

Before working with Niger Resources, I had first applied to the Chairman of Urban Resources in 2006 for employment. I gained employment there but the Chairman of Urban Shelter transferred me to Niger Resources after one year, and I hit the ground running, attracting block sales running into hundreds of millions of naira.  I was made the Managing Director of Niger Resources with a mandate:  if I could turn around the company, I would become a shareholder. I was able to thrive and today, I own shares of the company. 

I was inspired by three mentors to go into agriculture, first, by my father; second, by my uncle; third, by my boss, the Chairman of Niger Resources, Ismaila Ibrahim Aliu, who is also the Chairman of Urban Shelters. 

Agriculture, key to revamping national economy

First, agriculture is the highest employer of labour. With agriculture, we can secure the nation out of insecurity. With agriculture, we can secure the future of the nation economically. With agriculture, we can become one of the world’s superpowers. I would like to explain.

Daily, I have about 200 labourers working in my farms. Just assume that these guys are jobless, idle, doing nothing, they will create civil unrest, which will lead to insecurity. Most of the kidnappings and killings happening are as a result of joblessness. If we can have thousands of sustainable farms employing farmers, students, and youths to work, there is a tendency for insecurity to reduce. 

Making agriculture business attractive to youths

I can’t speak for the government, but I think it’s doing its best through Tradermoney, Youth Empowerment Fund Scheme, NPower Scheme, and the National Directorate for Employment. These are efforts not only by this government but by previous governments. In agriculture, the government has a scheme called the Anchor Borrowers Programme, etc. The problem is not with the government but with individuals. The willingness must be there. The youths have to take a decision to be independent and start something, then the government will come to support them. Money itself is nothing. Money cannot multiply itself. It’s you who will multiply it. 

Enclosure system and agricultural boom 

I am not in business to benefit from the government’s palliatives. I am in the business of agriculture to seize opportunities and utilise these opportunities. If you ask me, the enclosure system the government has introduced by enclosing the borders against the importation of rice is a good one. It has led to the emergence of many rice fields. The price of rice has gone up astronomically, though it is not supposed to be so. But, as a farmer, it’s a good thing for me because I can now go to farm, produce rice and the rice is also a blue chip in the country. 

But one shouldn’t rush to conclude that rice is a blue chip. Why has the price of rice gone up? It is because the variables for the production of  rice have also gone up: fertiliser, herbicides, insecticides, tractors, and hiring labour. So these components combined together led to the rise in the price of rice. 

Smuggling of rice into the country

Smuggling is a global phenomenon. Smuggling means taking illegal risks, going against the authorities; and when you are caught, you face the music. Again, smuggling can’t happen without conspirators from the authorities. But, no matter the rate of smuggling now, it cannot be that significant, compared to when the borders were open. 

Business environment amid uncertainties

The risk is particularly high. With the recent happenings – the #Endsars protests – Shoprite, Spar, etc., were looted. Properties belonging to private individuals who had nothing to do with the government were also destroyed. If you were a foreigner and saw these things, would you come to Nigeria? You would be discouraged. As a local investor, I was jittery and afraid.  Now, I am still afraid. That I am harvesting X number of yams in my farm, I was afraid that the protest could lead to revolution and wanton destruction, and my farm could also be affected. 

But, on a global outlook, Nigeria isn’t a bad climate for investment. The recent policy by the government regarding Visa on Arrival is meant to stimulate the economy. I am quite sure Nigeria is one of the countries that foreigners are allowed to invest and repatriate their profit 100 per cent. 

Delivering over $1 billion in  business investment 

I am good at negotiations. I am a professional negotiator and a professional facilitator. My first kick was the N226 million I brought for Urban Shelter in 2006/7 in building the Garki Ultra Modern Market through the Kano Emirate Council. From there, I facilitated a number of projects for Urban Shelter, but I wouldn’t like to mention them here.

Future projection 

Without any iota of doubt, Niger Resources will surpass Dangote in Nigeria in the next 10 years. I am planning that. Dangote didn’t plan it. He worked for it, and he achieved it. I am working for it. Maybe he followed left to achieve what he has achieved now; I will follow right to do mine. Before Dangote, there were others and, after Dangote, there should be others. And after us, others will come. 

Tags: Alhaji Bala Abdullahi KwatuManaging Director of Niger Resources Ltd
Rapheal

Rapheal

Related Posts

Hogan Lovells establishes multi-disciplinary Sovereigns Practice
Business

Hogan Lovells establishes multi-disciplinary Sovereigns Practice

2nd March 2021
Petrol scarcity bites harder in Abuja, Oyo, Yobe
Business

Petrol scarcity bites harder in Abuja, Oyo, Yobe

2nd March 2021
Sterling Bank partners commodity exchange to end $9bn post-harvest losses
Business

Onebank introduces Ajo Scheme for big-ticket savings

2nd March 2021
Next Post
Achieving financial freedom through Nigerian youth investment fund

Achieving financial freedom through Nigerian youth investment fund

Foundation empowers 10 young Africans with $115,000

Foundation empowers 10 young Africans with $115,000

Lawmaker lifts 400 Anambra women, youths

Lawmaker lifts 400 Anambra women, youths

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Highlights

Boko Haram attacks Borno’s central town again

Poor budget implementation, monitoring hampering Nigeria’s development – Experts

BREAKING: COVID-19 vaccines arrive Nigeria

Tokyo 2020 organisers to raise ratio of women on its board to 42%

BREAKING: Fire outbreak at Army Headquarters, Abuja

Breaking: Buhari, ministers, security chiefs in security meeting

Trending

NEDC scored high on good governance index, accountability
National

NEDC scored high on good governance index, accountability

2nd March 2021
0

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been commended for entrenching good governance...

Reveal identities of those behind schoolgirls' abductions, ACF tells Governor Matawalle

Reveal identities of those behind schoolgirls’ abductions, ACF tells Governor Matawalle

2nd March 2021
China's poverty eradication initiative bears fruit - Chu Maoming, Consul General 

China’s poverty eradication initiative bears fruit – Chu Maoming, Consul General 

2nd March 2021
Boko Haram attacks Borno's central town again

Boko Haram attacks Borno’s central town again

2nd March 2021
Poor budget implementation, monitoring hampering Nigeria’s development – Experts

Poor budget implementation, monitoring hampering Nigeria’s development – Experts

2nd March 2021

Follow us on social media:

Categories

  • Abuja Metro
  • Arts
  • Broken Tongues
  • Business
  • Business Week
  • Cartoons
  • Citizen Joe
  • Columns
  • Cover
  • Culture
  • Duro Onabule
  • Editorial
  • Education Review
  • Effect
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Events
  • Features
  • Femi Adesina
  • Food & Drinks
  • Frank Talk
  • Funke Egbemode
  • Gallery
  • Global Square by Kenneth Okonkwo
  • Health
  • Insights
  • Kalu Leadership Series
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Letters
  • Lifeline
  • Lifestyle
  • Literary Review
  • Marketing Matters
  • Muiz Banire
  • National
  • News
  • Offside Musings
  • Opinion
  • oriental news
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • PressClips
  • Public Sphere
  • Ralph Egbu
  • Shola Oshunkeye
  • Sideview
  • South-west Magazine
  • Sponsored Post
  • Sporting Sun
  • Sports
  • Sun Girl
  • Tea Time
  • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
  • The Sun Awards Live
  • The Sun TV
  • Thoughts & Talks
  • Time Out
  • Today's cover
  • Tola Adeniyi
  • Travel
  • Travel & Tourism
  • Trending
  • TSWeekend
  • Turf Game
  • Uncategorized
  • Updates
  • Views from Abroad
  • Voices
  • World
  • World News
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Paper Ad Rate
  • Online Ad Rate
  • The Team
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist