Nigeria's agricultural sector set to supply for UAE food market

04 September 2018 Consultancy.africa

Dubai-based Crenov8 Consulting has declared its intentions to create a market for Nigerian produce in the UAE market to help feed the latter country’s growing food demand. The announcement came in a speech from a senior Crenov8 executive at a press conference ahead of the annual ‘Meet the Farmers Conference’ to be held in Lagos in October.

Given its position as the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria is amongst the economies with lower levels of diversification beyond the oil trade, with oil revenues currently contributing two-thirds of total Nigerian state revenues. Nevertheless, the country is gradually working towards diversification, specifically through investments in the ICT sector, among others.

Now, the country’s agricultural sector has been given a promising indication for the future, as the UAE market – currently coping with a rapid increase in food demand – turns to Nigerian farmers to fill the gap in the country’s produce. Even more promising is the fact that Dubai-based Crenov8 Consulting has pledged to facilitate this trade relationship.

As per the firm’s analysis, Nigeria already accounts for 20% of the UAE’s agricultural imports, including some key crops such as cocoa, wheat, ginger, sugarcane, and a number of others. Crenov8 will build on this existing framework, linking Nigerian farmers directly with suppliers in the UAE.

Nigeria's agricultural sector set to supply for UAE food market

The announcement was made by Gbemisola Ajide – Business Strategy Consultant at Crenov8 – at a press briefing for ‘Meet the Farmers Conference,’ which will be held in Lagos on the 10th of October this year. The briefing was attended by several stakeholders from Nigeria’s agricultural segment, who appeared pleased with the initiative.

Ajide said, “MTFC is targeted at both large and small small-scale farmers to tap into the $100 billion market in Dubai, that’s why we are partnering with relevant stakeholders across both governments, with the Bank of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the private sector, with the likes of Farmcrowdy and AFEX, to help us aggregate farmers to export Agric produce to the UAE.”

Based in Dubai, Crenov8 describes itself as a “conglomerate consulting & digital firm,” which offers services in a range of domains, including management consulting, digital marketing, branding, designs, marketing technology, research, analysis, and development to solve business challenges.

The firm is active across other areas of the Middle East, and also has operations spanning the African continent. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Crenov8 has also incorporated plans to connect other African countries to the UAE market as well, given the diverse range of produce that each country has to offer.