The Brazilian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ricardo Guerra de Araujo, has spoken of his country’s interest in deepening its engagement and business activities by its investment plans in the Agricultural sector. In an interview with African Leadership Magazine, he affirmed Brazil’s interest in working with Nigeria’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would move Nigeria’s agriculture sector forward in the export of machines, equipment, and services.
Mr. Araujo said the partnership will be based on the Brazilian private sector involvement in production, training and capacity building so as to compete favorably with other countries. In his words, the aim will be to commercialize the entire agricultural value chain. The equipment and parts will be assembled in Nigeria in other to create jobs because of the need to create local jobs and other capacity building programmes that will teach the citizenry how to operate these machines.
The project which will be funded by the Brazil EXIM bank will see partnerships from the Canadian, German, Dutch and Nigerian apex banks with the Islamic Development Bank as a credit insurance for the participating banks. This deal which is to the tune of $1 billion will come in tranches with the first tranche valued at $178 million.
