Think of Nigeria’s economy like a big cake. Agriculture: that’s farming, raising animals, fishing, and taking care of forests—makes up the second biggest slice. In fact, about 28 percent of all the money Nigeria earns (its GDP) comes from this slice, and roughly 7 out of every 10 working Nigerians have jobs connected to it. Agriculture is often hailed as Africa’s untapped gold mine, but when does that promise turn into reality? To find out, I took a quick dive into recent agricultural projects across Nigeria, zeroing in on three critical areas: soil health and extension services, inclusive finance and the policy landscape, and the role of institutions and partnerships. One message comes through loud and clear: when Nigeria invests in stronger institutions—from local extension agencies to rural financing hubs—and forges solid partnerships between public and private actors, researchers and policymakers, and farmers and markets, innovation not only takes root but scales up and lasts.
Soil Health and Extension Services
Nigeria’s farmers continue to face declining soil fertility – long-term trials even show a drop in soil organic matter in Nigerian soils – and recent evidence demonstrates that input-centric approaches alone are insufficient. Government fertilizer subsidy schemes (covering ~35% of fertilizer use by 2017) delivered only modest yield gains, largely because degraded soils and inefficient input use limited returns. This underscores the need for integrated soil health management coupled with effective extension support, to promote practices like appropriate fertilization, organic amendments, and conservation agriculture. In the past five years, diverse extension innovations have emerged to bridge this gap – for example, the AKILIMO digital platform provides site-specific fertilizer recommendations and has reached over 400,000 cassava farmers in Nigeria, demonstrating how tailored advice at scale can boost adoption of soil-improving practices. Recently, the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) launched the National Electronic Extension Platform (NEEP), a digital initiative to improve productivity and farmers’ livelihood as well as enhance agricultural extension service delivery.. However, Nigeria’s extension system still struggles with low capacity and reach: the public extension agent-to-farmer ratio is around 1:10,000, and traditional services often bypass women and remote farmers. As a result, the past five years have seen a shift toward pluralistic, “farmer-first” extension models involving NGOs, agribusiness companies, and ICT tools; these partnerships have shown promise in expanding farmers’ access to knowledge and inputs, with private extension providers and digital channels helping hundreds of thousands of smallholders adopt improved practices.
the need for integrated soil health management coupled with effective extension support
Inclusive Finance and Policy Environment
Inclusive access to finance remains a critical enabler with significant gaps in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. As of 2019, only about 4% of commercial bank credit in Nigeria went to agriculture, and smallholders constitute the largest share of financially excluded persons. Women and youth farmers are particularly credit-constrained due to lack of collateral and other barriers. In response, policymakers and development programs have pursued initiatives to boost agricultural lending – for instance, interventions helped raise agriculture’s share of bank lending from 1% in 2011 to 6% by 2015. The Central Bank’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (launched in 2015) injected over ₦1 trillion in credit to small farmers; however, repayment rates have been low (around 50% recovery by 2022), highlighting challenges in design and sustainability of such direct lending schemes. A key lesson is that more innovative and inclusive financing models are needed. Recent projects have shown success with value-chain financing and informal financial institutions to reach smallholders – for example, facilitating input-supplier credit and village savings has mobilized millions of naira in loans while enabling more women to access funding. On the policy front, Nigeria’s evolving agricultural frameworks have had mixed outcomes. Successive national strategies (from the Agriculture Transformation Agenda to the Agricultural Promotion Policy) often carried sound objectives but suffered from inconsistent implementation and abrupt shifts with changing administrations. This lack of continuity, coupled with underinvestment, has hampered progress. Notably, public expenditure on agriculture averaged only ~1.6% of total government spending in 2015–2021 (far below the 10% Maputo target), limiting the resources available for extension, research, and credit programs. These findings underscore the importance of stable, well-resourced policies that prioritize an enabling environment for smallholders, including financial inclusion measures and evidence-based support programs.
more innovative and inclusive financing models are needed.
Institutions and Partnerships
Experience in Nigeria over the last five years highlights that strong institutions and partnerships are foundational for sustainable agricultural transformation. Many past programs faltered partly due to weak institutional linkages and siloed efforts; thus, current approaches emphasize better coordination among stakeholders. For example, Nigeria’s new National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP 2022–2027) explicitly seeks to involve research institutes and other partners in policymaking, addressing previous gaps where policies were made without consulting scientific institutions. Similarly, development initiatives demonstrate that multi-stakeholder partnerships can greatly amplify impact. The Kano State Agro-Pastoral Development Project – a US$90 million five-year partnership of the state government, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Lives and Livelihoods Fund, Sasakawa Africa Association, and others – has aligned public, private, and international actors to boost agricultural productivity and livelihoods, emerging as a scalable model of collaborative success. Its achievements underscore that no single actor can drive change alone: coordinated action leveraging government support, international funding, private-sector efficiency, and local knowledge is key to inclusive agricultural growth. Indeed, across Nigeria, multi-stakeholder platforms have been used to tackle systemic bottlenecks and align efforts. Notably, the once USAID-backed Feed The Future program convened networks of agribusiness SMEs, extension providers, and researchers to jointly develop solutions and best practices; this not only expanded services to farmers but also informed federal policy reforms to integrate private extension models into the national system.
strong institutions and partnerships are foundational
The lesson for Nigeria is clear: investing in institutional capacity (from extension agencies to financial services) and fostering robust partnerships (public–private, research–policy, and farmer–market linkages) create an enabling ecosystem that sustains agricultural innovations and scale-up.. By strengthening these cross-cutting enablers, recent efforts have built a more resilient foundation for Nigeria’s agricultural development.
