Financial Analysis and CEO of AfriSwiss Capital Assets Management Limited, Kalu Aja says Nigeria will continue to export Cocoa beans and import Chocolate unless there is a change of mindset about agriculture.

According to Aja, there are not just enough success stories at the local level to encourage Nigeria’s best and brightest students to go study agriculture and apply modern techniques to grow, store, process and distribute food.

I once had the pleasure of being in a room with Nigerian Multimillionaires, they were discussing investments, i listened. The Nigerian were having a discussion with a Mexican from the SanCarlos Company, the Mexican selling agriculture as a business to the Nigerians

The Mexican invested in a pineapple farm in Enugu, & now exports pineapples from Nigeria. The Mexican explained to the Nigerians that Nigeria enjoys excellent trade terms with Europe & the US, SanCarlos Pineapples are “Nigerian” thus allow them enter d EU under those trade terms.

The Nigerian millionaires were not convinced The Mexican went on, he was making good volume exports from Enugu, his dollar cost were lower in Nigeria than Mexico, he exports and earns same dollar per tonne for Pineapple. The Nigerian millionaires were still not convinced.

The Mexican moved unto Tomatoes, local demand for tomatoes was constant in Nigeria, but supply of tomatoes was seasonal, any investor could set up greenhouses and supply tomatoes all year round locally, great opportunity. The Nigerian millionaires were not convinced.

Carlos continued, “ok , i will make a deal with you all, invest in tomatoes, i guarantee i will buy up all your output”.. The Nigerian millionaires were not convinced The Mexican got an A for effort but he was facing a tough crowd.

READ MORE: https://thebelltimesng.com/2019/10/02/nigeria-will-continue-to-export-cocoa-beans-import-chocolate-unless-financial-expert/