By Oladele Eniola
Lagos, May 25, 2023 State of the African Diaspora (SOAD) on Thursday said it planned to create an agribusiness commodity exchange, aimed at helping farmers in the country.
The Roving Ambassador for SOAD, Mr Dele Ajayi-Smith, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Ajayi-Smith said that the creation of agribusiness commodity exchange would help in creating a direct channel to farming equipment.
He noted that it would help in strengthening the agricultural sector in the country and provide a platform for networking amongst farmers.
“There is incredibly enormous power in union and when we operate as a nation, our power will be limited to our space, and we would gather the momentum we need to thrive as a country.
“We intend to create a pan revolutionary agribusiness commodity exchange that will stand out the continent and make it a force to go alongside with other powerful nations like America, China and India.
“This would help create a buying mechanism for solidarity; for example, if there is draught in any of the African countries, there will be solidarity to have enough commodity exchange from other African countries for what is lacking in that troubled nation.
“We would develop and operate Pan-African Commodity Exchange Commission which will bring a huge strength to all the African countries including Nigeria.
“This in turn would help to strengthen the agricultural sector in the country in which farmers would have easy access to vital agricultural equipment, which would improve the sector,” he said
Ajayi-Smith said that trainings and orientation programmes would be carried out so as to build and create long term goals for the farmers and their families.
“We are committed to seeing that farmera who are registered under this platform would have pension worked out for them to enjoy the best of security, especially in their old age.
“Also, education, training and scholarship would be speedily worked out for their children to empower them to remain actively participating in farming business for food security, industrialisation and provision of raw materials for the country.
“Fair trade would be strengthened across the country to encourage farmers and their continuity in farming business.” he said.
He appealed to the Federal Government to support and acknowledge its activities, as it plans to assist in the quest to find solutions to developmental challenges facing the country.
