By Bashir Bello
The Dangote Group has said that it is collaborating with strategic partners to revitalise and strengthen the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy.
This development comes as the company sponsors the 17th National Agricultural Show, which opens on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
The company’s spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, stated that expanding mechanised agricultural practices will play a critical role in boosting Nigeria’s GDP while creating meaningful employment opportunities for the country’s growing youth population.
“Through this partnership, the company aims to encourage greater participation in commercial agriculture and reinforce its role in advancing Nigeria’s economic growth,” he said.
He said the theme for this year’s Show: Employing Smallholder Farmers: Restoring Value, Ensuring Productivity will Ensure Attainment of Food Security in Nigeria, is apt.
Mr. Chiejina said: “Restoring the value of agriculture offers Nigeria more than nostalgic appeal; it provides a pragmatic route to economic renewal. With the right incentives and modern practices, agriculture can once again serve as a reliable engine of growth, anchoring jobs, stabilising markets and giving the economy a sturdier foundation.”
The Agricultural Show, a fixture in Nigeria’s agricultural calendar, offers a platform for showcasing innovation across the value chain.
The statement said the company is currently developing rice mills in Kano, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, and Sokoto States, with a combined total milling capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum.
It noted that the effort is intended to support the government’s broader push for food security.
The statement quoted the Senior Adviser to the President of the Dangote Group, Mrs. Fatima Wali-Abdurrahman, as saying that, in line with the company’s commitment to restoring value to agro-allied industrialisation in Nigeria, it is investing heavily in its backward-integration projects in the sugar sub-sector in Nasarawa and Adamawa States.
She said as part of its contribution to the agricultural sector, the company has a fertilizer complex in Lagos, located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, with a production capacity of 3 million metric tonnes per annum of urea.
Speaking on the participation of the Dangote Group, Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria, organizers of the annual National Agric Show, Arc Kabiru Adamu, said: “Dangote Group has been our greatest ally from inception and we have enjoyed tremendous and invaluable support from them such that without them we will not be able to continue to hold the show efficiently.”
Arc Adamu, who is also the President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) urged the Dangote Group to focus on agriculture, after its success in the oil and gas sector.
He added that: “This year we envisage a tumultuous turn out of farm machinery manufacturers, processors, researchers and youth and women farmers answering the clarion call to bolster Nigeria’s food system.”
