Descripción de los procesos de las alternativas

Agribusiness and agro-allied industry is one sector that employs the largest number of Nigerians, particularly in the areas most affected by unemployment— The agricultural sector creates approximately 30% of all employment in Nigeria. (Dalberg, 2016) Opportunities to boost employment creation in agribusiness and agro-allied industry is observed to be driven by the country’s natural ecological endowment for agricultural commodities that can support the significant and growing domestic consumption. Likewise, import substitution opportunities, value addition/industrial processing opportunities, and existing or planned investments in Nigeria also drive opportunities for employment generation. The strategy will operationalise existing Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ) master plans, expand existing processor-based out-grower models, finance youth agropreneurs, and pilot the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD)’s agro-industrial processing park concept. These are bound to support the job creation potential of existing agriculture clusters.

Figure 5. 4: Employment projections in agribusiness clusters Source: Data Derived from Dalberg (2016)

This analysis was used as the basis for projecting potential job opportunities in the identified clusters. It is forecasted that over two million new jobs could be created within three years from the agriculture sector alone if a combination of these efforts are effectively implemented across select clusters. (Fig.5.4) The scope of skills distribution which point at the range of potential employment opportunities according to skill levels in the entire agricultural value chain are shown in Table 5.4. A gap analysis of the entire set was undertaken to determine the capacity building needs of different categories. It is expected that skills upgrading for the agriculture-and agro allied sector will depend mainly on practical learning, such as the training elements of the outgrower schemes and youth agropreneur financing / incubation initiatives.

Table 5. 4: Skills Distribution in Agribusiness and Agro-Allied Industries

Low Skill Medium Skill High Skill

Farmers Farm labourers Truck loaders Crop Sprayers Factory Hands processors Retailers Aggregators Poultry Attendants and Farmers Drivers Agro distributors Machinery Operators (on farm and off farm) Mechanics Extension workers Agronomists Mechanical/agricultural engineers Accountants Lawyers Extension Trainers Animal Scientists Vet Doctors

Source: Adapted from Dalberg, 2016 Finance Issues in the Job Creation Strategy

Finance is the main constraint to growth cited by Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). (Augusto, 2015) The Job Creation Strategy document therefore places special emphasis on how the growth of innovative financing in Nigeria could possibly be unlocked. A range of products that can help to deepen investment flows and thereby support job creation potential were identified. These include “partial and full credit guarantees (for example, through structures such as NIRSAL), currency swaps, results-based financing (such as a social impact bond)”, etc. It was envisaged that these facilities and a range of others will be structured to facilitate capital flow to the targeted sectors of the economy by working with the Ministry of Finance and development actors active in Nigeria. The name of “Bank of Agriculture”, which is clearly suggestive of agriculture financing was however not mentioned specifically in the preliminary stakeholder list of the strategy document under discussion. Key players in financing include AfDB, NIRSAL and BOI, yet a major thrust of the strategy document is on agribusiness and agro-based industries. On the field however,

the involvement of the institution was seen to be visible as the Anchor Borrowers credit facilities were being administered by the Bank in some locations.

The strategy document has a thrust that justifies the need to deploy additional government funds — at the terms required, for business operations to support large businesses to grow more rapidly. However, it not expected that these intervention funds would be taken as long-term solutions but rather as a means to use the funds to catalyse bank activity into the sectors. Other innovative financing, especially private sector products are also recommended to include formal venture capital, equity finance of different rates, impact investment, more debt of different tenures and return targets, as well as providing further support to formal groups (cooperatives, associations, business networks) to pool capital and make individual investments. An important consideration is to ensure that the sources of capital are made to propel job creation in Nigeria.

In a related move, the Federal Government in 2018 initiated Focus Labs as part of the innovations of the Economic and Growth Recovery Plan (ERGP) to drive job creation. Here, participants from different clusters would be able to discuss progress and constraints being experienced in three key areas of agriculture and transportation, power and gas and manufacturing and processing. The Focus Labs “involve stakeholders from the public and private sectors working together in a single environment to think out practical and workable solutions for delivering the kind of

result Nigeria needs” The central objective of the Labs is to ultimately bring in private capital that can be used to finance projects across Nigeria. The launch of the Focus Laboratories is expected to generate about $24 billion worth of investment for the country. Tracking of the outcomes of these initiatives as planned in the design is expected to support the achievement of the goal of job creation as envisioned.