By Joshua Olomu

Founder/CEO of Neveh Limited, a Nigerian commodities exporting and trading company, Mr Ibidapo Lawal has urged unemployed youths to shun the “Zappa” syndrome and embrace the abundant opportunities in agribusiness.

“Japa” refers to the trend of fleeing the shores of Nigeria in search of a better life.

Lawal, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday, declared that agribusiness is a viable option that can create employment and transform the country’s economy, “only the youth will take advantage of it. Can pick it up”.

“I left this country for the United States in 2012 to pursue an MBA; I later got a job where I was offered $100,000 a year, but I decided to come back.

“I knew that the place where you can really make money is in Nigeria and Africa, because the kind of returns you can get in Africa, you cannot get anywhere else.

“All my friends who stayed are doing better than those who traveled abroad; You just have to focus, you have to think outside the box, be courageous, be persistent.

“I am telling our youth not to “chant” because there are so many opportunities here, especially in agribusiness.

“Our youth can explore many agribusiness opportunities. They can cultivate products like cashew, ‘zobo’, ginger and others.

“I want to tell you that ‘Zobo’, yes, the same ‘Zobo’ that you drink, and even peanuts and soybeans can be exported. These things are in our local communities.

“As I’m talking to you right now, we have shipments of soybeans that are being prepared to be exported to India, Pakistan and other parts of the world.

“So, the opportunities are limitless, it depends on what exactly you want to do in the agriculture sector,” he said.

Lawal said as Nigeria faces economic challenges and wants to diversify its main source of revenue, its rich agricultural sector is a real option if well exploited.

He said if the Federal Government is serious about rescuing Nigeria from the current economic crisis, agriculture is a gold mine that must be explored.

He advised governments at all levels to provide the enabling environment in the form of funding, adequate policies and programs to make the sector attractive, especially for young people.

“As a country, we are taking a lot of risk because we have only one major source of income, which is crude oil and it is more than 80 percent of our national revenue.

“Our government needs to put in place policies and incentives that can actually encourage people to go back to agriculture.

“There, people will not only farm but export the raw products and ensure that factories are built to really add value to the products before export.

“The government needs to showcase Nigerian products; Let them pay to have Nigerian pavilions at major economic exhibitions to encourage our exporters to showcase cocoa and other products.

“We need to tell the world that we can increase commodity exports from this country because market access is very important,” he said. (nan new) (nannew.ng)

Source: nannews.ng

Source: biz.crast.net

Source: biz.crast.net