The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has urged the Federal Government to consider a recent World Bank report and create an enabling environment for business to strive in Nigeria.
Dr Kehinde Makinde, the Country Manager of AGRA, who made the call in Abuja on Thursday, said that efforts should be made to put in place an appropriate environment that would enable business to flourish in the country.
The World Bank recently released a report which rated some sub-sectors of the country’s agricultural sector as below the world standard.
In the report, the seed sub-sector got 48.85 per cent, markets got 49.24 per cent, transport got 46.30 per cent, water got 32.03 per cent, ICT got 50 per cent, fertiliser got 57.79 per cent, machinery got 63.07 per cent and finance got 57.21 per cent.
Some stakeholders in the agricultural sector, however, faulted the report, saying that data used in the study were collected before June 2017, while a lot of transformation had taken place in the agricultural sector since then.
Makinde said that the report on “Enabling Business of Agriculture (EBA, 2017) for Nigeria’’ was somewhat a call on the Federal Government to address some of the challenges listed in the report.
He said that the quality of the data collected for the study largely depended on those who provided the information for the World Bank, adding that the World Bank was a credible institution.
“The World Bank Group has been in this business over time. People may have one or two reasons to disagree with this report but it doesn’t mean it applies to everywhere in the country.
“They are looking for an average for the nation. In a particular state, they may have a different situation — maybe a little higher than average or little below average.
“But what is important is to see the general situation of things and look at the general situation which the report talked about. It is clear that in doing this, they consulted with many partners,’’ he said.
Makinde said that the report, which covered 62 countries, reflected how each country performed, while benchmarked against other countries.
He said that the report showed Nigeria’s performance in relation to other countries, which was relatively low.
“The report showed how each country was performing in the benchmark against other countries. There are 62 countries that were covered in this report and one is able to see how Nigeria is doing, in relation to other countries.
“The essence of the report is to provide information which policy actors like the private sector, policymakers and the media can use in efforts to decipher the level of Nigeria and know what needs to be done to improve on these indicators,’’ he added. (NAN)
