Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation on earth. we are investment-ready – Vice President, Shettima

During a side event of the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit, Vice-President Kashim Shettima encouraged foreign investors to capitalize on the opportunities in Nigeria, emphasizing that the country, as the most populous black nation on Earth, is fully prepared for business.

According to a statement from his spokesman Olusola Abiola on July 26, Shettima highlighted the advantageous combination of Nigeria’s youthful and dynamic population alongside President Bola Tinubu’s government’s ambitious agenda, positioning the country ahead of others in the region.

He expressed optimism that the anticipated transformation could be achieved by leveraging the existing “building blocks” in Nigeria. These include the government’s recent declaration of a state of emergency on food security, which brought food and water under the purview of the National Security Council.

Shettima emphasized the significance of concentrating on agribusiness and recognizing that the pivotal investment to revolutionize the food system would come from the private sector. In this regard, the government’s role would be to create a conducive environment to scale up investment.

He said; “We have the capacity of transforming the demographic bulge into demographic dividends, or it will be the demographic disaster that will consume all of us. Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation on earth, and the population is young. The median age is 19,” stated the Nigerian vice-president

“The success story of the value chain development programme speaks for itself. The programme has empowered 100,000 small-scale farmers to enter into engagement with some of the food marketing companies in the world, which enabled them to lift their families out of the poverty trap,” the vice-president explained.

“We have a president who has a private sector background and a vice president who is also from the private sector. We have a president who has the knack for selecting the best to drive the process,” the vice-president. “Be rest assured that the next frontiers for global development are facing Africa, and Nigeria will make or mar that transition.”