Nigeria Risks Millions of Jobs as Experts Mention Sector That Could be Nigeria's Biggest Employer
- Nigeria is losing millions of potential jobs by neglecting agriculture, despite the sector’s capacity to drive mass employment and industrial growth
- Experts have listed some factors that have kept Nigeria dependent on food imports while suppressing job creation across the agricultural value chain
- They argue that revitalising agriculture is essential to addressing both the country’s unemployment crisis and its persistent food insecurity
Legit.ng journalist Victor Enengedi has over a decade's experience covering Energy, MSMEs, Technology, Banking and the Economy.
Nigeria may be forfeiting millions of potential jobs by failing to place agriculture at the centre of national development, according to a new evidence-based report unveiled in Lagos by top economists and policy specialists.
The report warns that the country stands at a crossroads: continue relying on imports that drain employment opportunities, or invest strategically in agriculture to spur large-scale job creation, industrial growth, and economic stability.
Source: UGC
Its findings reveal a troubling reality - Nigeria sits on vast agricultural and employment potential but struggles to realise it due to inconsistent policymaking, weak institutional frameworks, and long-term neglect of the sector.
Agriculture as Nigeria’s missed opportunity
Speaking at the public launch of How Africa Eats: Trade, Food Security and Climate Risks, written by renowned trade and development scholar Professor David Luke, experts emphasised that Nigeria’s employment crisis and the continent’s food insecurity share a common root cause: an agricultural sector that has been sidelined for decades.
They argued that agriculture—an area where Nigeria naturally holds a competitive edge—could become the country’s biggest source of jobs if backed by coherent and sustained support.
The report highlights that revitalising the sector would not only increase food output but also unlock employment across multiple value-chain segments, including processing, logistics, storage, mechanisation, input supply, digital agriculture, and export-oriented agro-industries.
Despite these possibilities, most of the opportunities remain untapped, creating the contradiction of rising unemployment in a region with one of the world’s most labour-absorbing sectors.
A call for reform and investment
Rather than merely outlining problems, the experts issued a strong call for action, insisting that agriculture should be understood as the backbone of Africa’s employment strategy—not just a development concern.
They cautioned that without policy reforms, improved security for farmers, and significant investment in mechanisation and climate-resilient systems, the continent will continue “importing food and exporting jobs.”
The consensus among the specialists is clear: with the right interventions, Nigeria—and Africa more broadly—can shift agriculture from an overlooked industry into a powerful engine for national job creation.
Failure to do so, they warned, will allow the food and employment crises to reinforce each other, deepening economic vulnerability and external dependence.
Professor Luke, author of the newly launched book, described the neglect of agricultural investment as both a moral lapse and an economic miscalculation. He lamented that more than 200 million Africans face food deprivation while many governments remain seemingly unmoved.
Source: Getty Images
He said:
“We cannot normalise hunger on this continent. A third of Africa’s population is food insecure—these are staggering numbers.”
Luke also underscored the employment potential embedded within Nigeria’s food system, noting that the country’s agricultural competitiveness has been eroded by global subsidy regimes and insufficient domestic support.
Source: Legit.ng
