Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Sen. Abubakar Kyari informed members of the National Assembly Caucus of the Northeast on Saturday, April 12th, that President Bola Tinubu supports equality and inclusivity when implementing national agricultural projects and programs.

Following agitations by the Caucus, Kyari made the statement during a press briefing, claiming that the Tinubu-led administration had excluded the North-Eastregion from the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, or SAPZ, project. The Minister refuted the claim, calling it incorrect, and added that no area of the nation would not be left out of any agricultural projects carried out by the Tinubu-led administration.

He says Vice President Kashim Shettima leads the Presidential Food System Coordination Council (PFSCC).

He said: “Our attention has been drawn to concerns that the North–East was entirely excluded from the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) programme of the Federal Government. Considering that this concern is coming from members of the National Assembly Caucus of the Northeast, it becomes imperative that we set the record straight because they got it all wrong. 

“First, permit me to state unequivocally that the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has recognised the absolute need to avoid exclusion because one of the agenda is ‘Inclusivity’ to ensure that in all we do, all segments of the country and all relevant stakeholders and groupings are carried along in the design and implementation of government programmes. 

“In the Agricultural Sector, the President approved the Presidential Food System Coordination Council under the leadership of the Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima GCON, including governors from the six geopolitical zones and other critical stakeholders across the zones. 

“This is in addition to the statutory National Economic Council. The essence is to ensure the participation of all tiers of government and to guarantee that no state is excluded from the design and implementation of all our agricultural and food security programmes and initiatives. 

“Why did the North–East Caucus get it all wrong? On the 8th of April, we commenced the groundbreaking ceremony for the Design-Build-and Operate of the Kaduna Agro-Industrial Hub, and the Cross River Agro-Industrial Hub on the 10th of April 2025, which was the reference point for their worry and concern. But how did we get to this point of doing a representative signpost of a milestone in the project?

“We are glad that they acknowledged the very innovative nature of the SAPZ as a groundbreaking change in the agricultural development agenda and priority of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR.”

According to the Minister, the SAPZ programme was launched in 2022 based on its conceptual design of Phase 1 in 2019. 

“This project is a Federal Government enabled initiative with subscription by the State Governments of the Federation. Therefore, all State Governments were expected to Express Interest in the program individually. For clarity, the following steps were taken to arrive at the Program today: The selection Process: In 2019, each state governor was notified to express interest with an attached eligibility criteria to enable them to participate in phase 1 of the program. Upon receipt of their expression of interest, a joint team comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Development Finance Institution, in this case, the African Development Bank, conducted a mission to each of the states to verify the fulfilment of the eligibility criteria as a selection process. 

“At this stage, eight States qualified: Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, Imo, Cross River, and FCT. However, upon this administration’s assumption of office, we reviewed the development potential of this program under Mr. President’s renewed hope agenda and decided that no state would be left behind. 

“Consequently, the Vice President’s first international mission was to Rome, Food System Summit, where he galvanises more funding to enable us to take more states. He also embarked on a second mission to the World Food Price meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, where he obtained a commitment of 1 billion USD from the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to bring on board more states.

“Financing arrangement: the SAPZ is a Subsidiary Loan Agreement Programme, which means that the federal government onboards the obtained loans to the state to implement the programme. 

“Considering this is a loan, it is solely the discretion of the state to participate or not, and we have cases where states have not expressed interest.

“Phasing of the Project: the overall policy directive of Mr. President is that all States must be brought on board. However, this will be in phases. We are convinced that as other states see the actuality of this project, they will become more interested and, therefore, express their interest in being in the first stage of being onboarded. Perhaps this is the case with the North East Caucus, which has seen two landmark events held back-to-back in Kaduna and Cross River States. The Phase 2 of the Program had already commenced in earnest. 

“I have personally communicated to all the states not in phase 1 in writing, notifying them of the program and to express interest. Consequently, we have received Expressions of Interest from 27 States. Still, only 10 States fully complied with the eligibility criteria, including three North-East states, namely Gombe Borno and Bauchi States, for the first tranche of phase 2, as there will be three tranches of onboarding states in phase 2. So, the sweeping statement by the Caucus that “the North East was completely excluded” is incorrect.

“We will continue to listen, and we’ve heard the statements of the representatives of the North East, and we assure you all that the SAPZ Program is for all Nigerians and every State of the Federation will be brought on board.”

Meanwhile, he (Kyari) appealed to the legislators, especially the North East NASS Caucus, to appeal to the other Governors of the North East, namely Taraba, Yobe, and Adamawa, to reinvigorate their interest in the Programme and ensure they fulfil the eligibility criteria for the second phase. 

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) on the Irrigate Nigeria project in Bauchi State; 120 housing units and a Farmer Empowerment Centre in Adamawa State; the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project, which was started in partnership with the World Bank and aims to restore degraded lands and improve climate resilience in Adamawa State; and other large agricultural projects and programs that are currently underway in the North-East region, he added, include subsidised inputs to increase dry-season production—installations of solar-powered infrastructure and electric vehicles in theNorth-East; soil testing facilities in the Northeastern states.

Source: Vanguard

Image Credit: Punch Newspaper