CAN'T AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL IMPORTATION BE BOOSTED?

In an earlier post based on patronage figures for the Nigerian agricultural credit guarantee scheme Henates had established that companies need to be encouraged to access the scheme. They simply do not.
But that seems to be a minor part of the problem with agriculture today in Nigeria. Mostly, only local small scale farmers are involved and in particular, only peanuts flow for agriculture through capital importation.
According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics for the second quarter of this year. Since 2013, only one quarter recorded close to $100m capital importation for agriculture: The third quarter of 2015 when $95m was so imported.
In every other quarter, even $40m was worth celebrating (3rd quarter 2013) because most of the quarterly figures ranged below $5m for agriculture.
In 2016 second quarter $1m was imported for agriculture. It is sad that even this peanut represented significant increase on first quarter's $0.20m and on 2015 second quarter's $0.05m.
For the record, capital importation into Nigeria has been heading down since 2015 so much so that, importation for oil and gas, for the first time, led all sectors while the traditionally dominant telecommunications, banking, servicing and manufacturing lined up behind with reduced in flows for the 2016 second quarter.
Indeed, inflow for telecommunications and banking more or less dried up within the second quarter when compared to levels clocked throughout 2013 and 2014.
Capital importation especially in these times offers two very important benefits: Scarce foreign exchange flow in, thus helping to loosen existing stranglehold and secondly, deployment of such long term money will certainly help in boosting local production and innovation if well directed.
So, why are  we hearing more of distribution of subsidised fertilizers and seedlings to farmers by government, and little of articulated incentives to encourage higher capital importation into agriculture and other sectors considered crucial to Nigeria's recovery?

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